


Quite magical

by DarkShadow_2y5



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Slow Burn, Supernatural Elements, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 20:41:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 85,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16818094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkShadow_2y5/pseuds/DarkShadow_2y5
Summary: After the divorce from her husband Alec Lightwood’s mother wants to start a brand new life and move from New York into a small town in the middle of nowhere. Alec and his three siblings are not happy about having to leave everything and everybody they know behind but after a while they actually start to like their new home. Alec is especially curious about their new neighbour, Magnus Bane, who is also working at library of their new school during the week and who seems to have a big secret. Alec knows that Magnus is way out of his reach: he is almost six years older than he is and he is also known for not letting anybody into his life but still he just can't help falling for him. Apart from that Alec discovers that there might be something his mother is trying to hide from him, something important about their family and their past that could possibly change his entire life …(Written from Alec's and Magnus's POV)





	1. Chapter 1

POV Alec 

Alec Lightwood never would have thought they would be leaving New York City one day. He and his family had lived there for nearly eighteen years and he couldn't imagine possibly feeling at home anywhere else. New York was the city he grew up in, the city he had seen everyday from then on. He was used to living there. He was used to hearing the noise of the traffic outside when he tried to sleep. He was used to living in a big city full of different people and he didn't want anything to change.

Alec didn't like change. Even though he wasn’t exactly shy it often was rather difficult for him to open up to other people and new things. But from now on everything was going to change and Alec couldn't do anything to stop it. 

After the divorce of his parents his mother wanted a fresh start; she wanted to start a new life and she couldn't do that in New York because Robert was there as well. You would think that a city as big as New York should have enough space for both of Alec’s parents but apparently that wasn't the case. That's why they were leaving today: Alec, his sister Isabelle, his two brothers Jace and Max and their mother of course. 

They were all sitting in the car together and Alec looked out of the window, watching them leave the huge buildings of the big apple behind. For a moment he felt like he couldn't breathe. He wasn't ready for this. Not at all. He felt like he was falling into a big emptiness and there was nobody who could help him. He wasn't sure how his siblings felt about their move - apart from the very obvious fact that they weren't exactly happy about it either - but he suspected that they didn't feel as helpless as he did. They were different than he was, at least Izzy and Jace. They were popular and very confident so it wouldn't be hard for them to fit in and find new friends. Max was a little bit more like him but he was probably too young to really understand the way Alec was feeling right now. 

Alec sighed. He knew that he was probably exaggerating but he just couldn't help it. He’d always been like that. 

Maybe he wouldn't have been that nervous if they were moving to another big city and not a small town in the middle of nowhere where no more than approximately 500 people lived. They would definitely be the center of attention after their arrival. 

Alec’s knowledge about towns like these was mainly based on movies and TV shows but he didn’t expected it to be that much different in real life. People would be talking about them, would ask curious questions. In a big city like New York it had been relatively easy to just disappear into the crowd but in a place like this that definitely wouldn't be possible anymore. That's what was making Alec nervous. He definitely preferred to not be the center of attention and that was way easier when there were more people around him. He also wondered how Izzy and Jace were going to deal with their new living situation. He highly doubted there would be any big shopping centers or clubs for partying in Maysfield like the ones his siblings had usually frequented. There would probably be just one grocery store in the area and everybody would know each other’s name and where they lived. 

Alec was lost in thought until he heard his sisters voice next to him. “Hey are you okay?” Izzy asked quietly. 

“Sure.” Alec nodded and smiled but he was almost certain that it didn't look very convincing. 

Even Max seemed to realize he was being sincere. “Do you want a cookie? It always makes me feel better when I eat them.” 

“Thank you” Alec accepted the offer. Max was right: eating cookies always was a good solution. 

They had been driving for a few hours now and the navigation system told them that they would be arriving at their new house in about five minutes. 

Alec couldn't deny that he liked how Maysfield looked so far. There were small trees alongside the road and all the houses were picturesque. It appeared peaceful and quiet, like a perfect place to live, but still he secretly wished his mother would change her mind, immediately turn around and drive back again. This place somehow seemed too perfect to him. Unreal. It was almost suspicious. 

“Oh look, isn't it lovely here?” Maryse was obviously trying to lighten the mood but it wasn't working very well.

“It looks hella boring to be honest” Jace said. 

Maryse sighed. “Please give it a chance, Jace. It would really mean a lot to me if you could all help me get through this.”

Alec immediately felt guilty when he heard how exhausted his mother sounded. As much as he disliked the idea of moving somewhere else he could understand his mother's decision and he definitely didn't want her to feel even worse because of his childish behaviour. He had been in a very bad mood when they left in the morning but he should really be able to push his own emotions aside and support his mother instead. After all she had just been cheated on and she surely wasn’t feeling great either.

“Of course we will” he said. “We are always going to help you.”

“That's good to hear.” Maryse smiled thankfully and looked at Alec through the rear-view mirror. When he saw the expression on her face he suddenly felt a hot wave of anger running through his body. It was his father's fault that she was looking like this. So broken. Maybe it was good that they had left New York after all because Alec was pretty sure he would have punched the cheating dirtbag he refused to call his father any longer right in the face if he had to ever see him again. 

“There we are” Maryse said eventually and stopped the car in front of a large house built out of grey and white bricks. It was standing a little bit further away from the street and there was a yard with little trees and plants in front of it. A stone path was leading up to the front door. 

“Wow” Alec said. He really liked the house. It was beautiful. 

“I told you it's a pretty house” Maryse said, obviously satisfied with his reaction. 

They got out of the car and Alec realized that there were three cats running around in front of the house next to theirs.

Jace chuckled when he saw them too. “I bet there is a crazy, old cat lady living next to us.” 

“Awww I love cats” said Max and his eyes were glowing with excitement. “Mom can we have a cat too? Pleeease. Or a dog, I don't care” 

Maryse laughed. “Let’s talk about it later.” 

\--------------- 

POV Magnus 

“And? Have they arrived yet?”

“What, who?” Magnus yawned and walked over to the coffee machine, holding his phone to his ear with his right hand. If he didn't get some caffeine into his system as soon as possible he was probably going to fall asleep again right on his feet. 

“Your new neighbours of course” the voice on the phone said. 

Magnus frowned in confusion. He had no idea what the hell his mother was talking about. “What? How do you know about that?” he asked and took his favourite mug out of cupboard. “I haven't told you if I remember correctly. And I'm pretty sure that I remember correctly because I just heard about the new neighbours recently. And by recently I mean when you mentioned it about five seconds ago.”

He placed the cup on the little plate and started the coffee machine.

“You really didn't know about this?” His mother sounded surprised, almost a little reproachful. Magnus rolled his eyes and drummed his fingers on the kitchen counter while he was waiting for his coffee to finish brewing. “No, I didn't know about this and I’m really wondering how you do. You don’t even live in this village.” 

“Nancy told me about it when we met for brunch yesterday” his mother said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world but Magnus still didn't get what was going on.

“Who’s Nancy?” he asked. 

His mother gasped. “You have to be kidding me! Paula’s daughter of course. Paula is a good friend of Beverly's sister Abigail and Abigail knows it from her.” 

Now Magnus was totally lost. “Abigail knows what from whom?” He still was way too tired for stuff like this and he felt a serious headache coming on. Although his mother had always been very talkative it seemed even worse than usual today. She loved spreading gossip and she always seemed to know everything about everybody. Sometimes it was almost scary. Or annoying. Or in this case, all of the above. 

“Beverly. The woman who lives next to you, Magnus. Abigail knows about the new neighbours from her. Apparently she knows the woman who is going to move in next to you” Magnus’s mother explained. “She says she has four kids and that she just got divorced from her husband. Poor thing. All alone with all those little children …” She continued on but Magnus tuned her out. His coffee was finally ready and he really wasn't in the mood for talking now.

“Yes, that's really tragic but I would love to have breakfast now if you don’t mind. I'm starving” he eventually interrupted his mother mid-sentence and grabbed the mug with his coffee while he was talking. He took a sip of the hot liquid and then walked over to the kitchen table. In honor of the season Magnus had decorated it with some chestnuts and cute little hedgehog figurines. He loved decorating in general. He couldn't wait to put up all his Halloween stuff in a few weeks and he was even more excited for christmas. He really hoped that the new neighbours wouldn't be bothered by his decorations. It was always quite … overwhelming for ordinary people. 

His previous neighbours had not been very fond of all the lights and the fancy ornaments on his house and spread across his garden. They also hadn't been very fond of Magnus in general because he himself could also be a little bit overwhelming since he wasn't like the majority of society expected him to be. He was different and he definitely wasn’t ashamed of it but still a lot of people didn't like the way he was. His old neighbours had never openly complained but Magnus knew exactly what they had thought of him. He had lived long enough to develop a sense for these kinds of things. 

It was the way they had looked when they ran into him on the street: they had been smiling but in their eyes Magnus could see that they didn't understand him. That they didn't approve of his appearance and what he did. 

He definitely hadn't shed a tear when they had moved away a couple of months ago. 

“Hey Magnus, are you still there?” 

Magnus winced when his mother yelled into his ear. He hadn't even realised that she was still talking. 

“Yes, I am.” 

“Why are you just eating breakfast now? You do know that it's already past lunch time, right?” 

Why couldn't she just stop asking all these annoying questions? Magnus had just gotten out of bed a few minutes ago and dealing with his mother right after that was just really exhausting.

“Because I was still sleeping until you called me. It was a long day yesterday and I had some very exhausting clients” he explained and flicked his fingers. From one second to the next a sumptuous breakfast materialized right in front of him, containing everything that Magnus liked. He hadn't eaten in a very long time and he definitely needed that to change right now. 

After breakfast and after drinking two cups of coffee Magnus already felt a lot better than before and he spontaneously decided to go for a walk. He grabbed his coat and a scarf because even though it was only September yet it had already gotten pretty cold outside. He opened the door and was just about to step out the door when he suddenly saw the car that was parked on the street and he stopped in the middle of the movement. The car was unfamiliar … so his mother really had been right about the new neighbours. Unfortunately he couldn't see them anywhere. The only thing he saw was that Church had left a dead mouse in front of his door again. 

“Urgh.” Magnus wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Thanks a lot for that delightful present.” 

He looked around quickly but there was nobody to be seen so he flicked his fingers again and the dead mouse disappeared. “That's much better.” 

Church was sitting at the other end of the garden and looked offended. He was the only cat Magnus knew who was able to convey that particular emotion. 

While Magnus was lost in thought for a moment a girl stepped out of the house next to his. She had black hair and appeared to be about sixteen years old. She definitely didn't look like a ‘little child’ like his mother had said. Little children surely wouldn't wear shoes like the ones she was wearing. She had great taste in clothes, that much was sure.

Magnus watched her walk to the car and grab something out of the glovebox. He didn't know why but for some reason he just couldn't take his eyes off of her. Yes, she was attractive but Magnus was sure that that wasn't what was holding his attention. For some reason he suddenly had a very strange feeling in his gut and he could almost hear alarm bells ringing inside of his head.  
It was only when the girl turned around to go back to the house and he saw her face he realized. It hit him like a punch in the face and he felt his jaw drop. 

He knew that face. He was absolutely sure.  
The girl didn't see him and walked back into the house. 

“What the hell?!” Magnus was still standing in front of his door, frozen in disbelief and felt like the universe was just playing a big joke on him. 

Mechanically he turned around and walked back into his house as well, closing the door behind him. His desire to go for a walk had just vanished into thin air. Before he did anything else he had to make a few calls and find out what the hell was going on here; how it was possible that Maryse Lightwood and her doubtless repellent children were suddenly living right next to his door.


	2. Chapter 2

POV Alec 

Alec felt strange when he entered their new house for the first time - the place he was supposed to call home from now on - but he tried to not let his feelings show. What he saw actually looked kinda nice - or at least he could imagine that it would look nice at some point in the future when there actually was something inside the house. Of course some of the furniture was already there, but just the very basic things as he realized when Maryse showed them around. Apart from the kitchen and bathroom interior, a dining table and one or two shelves in some of the other rooms the house was almost shockingly empty.

Of course Alec hadn't expected everything to be fully furnished when they arrived - Maryse didn't want to keep most of their old stuff and the new furniture wasn’t going to be delivered before the end of the week - but he wouldn't have thought that it would be that serious. 

This definitely was going to be a lot of work. He wasn't an expert of course but even though the house was generally in a relatively good condition there were quite a few things that needed to be repaired or improved before they could really live there. The banister which led to the second floor for example was a little bit shaky and there also would be no harm in changing some of the wallpapers … 

Alec could already see his freetime vanishing right in front of his eyes. He was almost certain that their mother wanted to turn this whole thing into a big family project. She probably wanted them to work on the new house all together because it was a good way of spending more time with each other. Alec guessed that she wanted to distract them from what had happened and that she was trying to show them that they were still a family, even though Robert wasn't living with them any longer. He knew his mother and her way of thinking so Alec was almost certain that he was right with his theory. 

“So what do you think about this?” Maryse's voice suddenly interrupted Alec’s thoughts and he realized that his mother was looking at him. 

“Uh what?” he asked distracted. He had no idea what the others had just been talking about. There were so many thoughts running through his head at the moment that he couldn't really concentrate on anything else. He was way too busy trying to adapt to everything, to take in all the new expressions around him and to worry about what was going to happen in the future. New house, new neighbours, a new school, new people around him … all this was going to be a lot to deal with in the next few days and Alec wasn't sure if he would be able to handle it.

“Max said he's hungry so I suggested that we could go to this nice little coffee shop we passed on our way” Maryse explained. “I know that this morning - and the whole last week probably - was very stressful for all of us and I thought this would maybe be a good way to relax a bit before we continue with this whole moving business.” 

“Oh yeah sounds good” Alec said and he really meant it. He hadn't had breakfast today and the only thing he had eaten so far was the cookie Max had given him in the car. Normally he ate quite a lot - if he wouldn't work out in his freetime he would probably be very fat by now - but this morning Alec had just been way too tense for breakfast. His stomach definitely needed something to work with now.

“Great so let's go” Maryse said and they all went downstairs again. 

The weather outside luckily was pretty good. It wasn't too hot and the sky was covered with white fluffy looking clouds. 

On their way to the coffee shop Alec quickly realized how quiet everything around them was. In contrast to New York the streets were extremely empty here. It was relaxing but also kind of strange. It felt like something was missing. Still Alec enjoyed looking at all the houses and the people they walked by. 

He had always been like that - he liked making observations about his surroundings and always paid attention to the details in everything he saw. Mostly he did this because he was very curious and couldn't understand how so many people could be so blind for everything that was happening around them but sometimes it also helped him to calm down a bit. He liked to think about everything and everybody he saw and analyze it. When they passed a house he tried to imagine what kind of people were living in it and what they were doing at the moment. The only problem was that sometimes when Alec was too focused on the details he became unaware and blind for the obvious, the things that everybody else saw immediately.

On their way to the coffee shop however he noticed that almost everybody who lived here seemed to have at least one dog. Apparently their cat loving neighbour was a little bit of an outsider here.

Max of course greeted every dog they encountered and by the time they had finally arrived at their destination they had made the acquaintance of a dachshund, two chihuahuas and a Golden retriever named Lucky. Their owners were all friendly as far as it seemed. But still Alec was way more interested in the dogs than in the actual people who were trying to have a conversation with them.

Max now wanted a dog as well as he exclaimed when they entered the coffee shop and Maryse just sighed in response. 

They sat down at a free table in the left back corner of the room and Izzy quickly tried to change the topic when Max kept on talking about wanting to have a pet. “Hey look at this! They have your favourite cupcakes here” she said and pointed at the menu which was lying in the middle of the table. It worked immediately. 

“Oh really?” Max asked and beamed. “That's great.” 

A few minutes later everybody had decided on what to eat. Alec would go with some coffee and french toast. 

When he looked up from the menu he saw that Jace was on his phone, typing quickly. Even though Alec already used his smart phone more often than before he still couldn't understand how it was possible to write that fast. 

“Hey is this really necessary?” Maryse asked eventually. “Maybe you could talk to us instead of just staring into your phone.”

Jace made an annoyed sound but continued texting anyways.

“Let me see who you are writing to” Izzy said and tried to look at the display but Jace immediately pulled his phone away. 

“Ah come on don't be like that. I bet it's that Kaelie chick from your so called book club, right? Is she already missing you?” Izzy smirked smugly.

“It really is a book club” Jace said, trying to defend himself but nobody believed him. In contrast to Alec he wasn't really a big fan of reading and it was more than implausible that he had been spending his afternoons in New York in a book club.

“Well whoever it is - please put your phone away now” Maryse said just when a rather small girl with orange hair came to their table to take their orders. She seemed to be approximately about sixteen years old and she had a very friendly smile.

“Hi my name is Clary. What can I get you?” she asked. 

“I would like to have some apple pie and Max wants one of those special muffins you offer” Izzy said. Alec and Maryse gave their orders next then everybody was looking at Jace. He didn't even realize - at least not until Alec elbowed him hardly.

“Ouch. What do you want? What’s going on?” he asked confused and also annoyed.

“I asked what you guys want to eat” Clary repeated just as friendly as before. “But if you don't want anything that's totally fine of course.” 

Jace stared at her and his jaw dropped for a second. He looked at the girl as if he couldn't believe that she was really there, standing right in front of him but it only lasted for a short moment, then he had his facial expressions under control again.

“I … uh … I just want a coffee please” he said and he almost sounded a little bit awkward. 

Alec couldn't believe what was happening here. Jace was never awkward or shy when he was talking to girls but apparently this particular one had caught him off guard. 

Of course the others had noticed as well and as soon as Clary was gone Izzy started giggling.   
From then on Jace didn't look down at his phone any longer. 

POV Magnus 

“Maryse Lightwood moved in next to you? Oh my god this has to be the funniest thing I've heard in the last two centuries” the green skinned warlock who was sitting on Magnus's couch said and burst into laughter. Obviously he wasn't aware of the fact that his friend was standing right in front of him with his arms crossed in front of his chest and was staring down at him with an angry expression on his face. It was either that or he just didn't care. Actually Magnus guessed that it rather was the second option. 

He probably shouldn't have called this idiot in the first place. Magnus had already suspected that his so called friend wasn't going to be very helpful but unfortunately Catarina - his best friend and the person he normally talked to in situations like that - was still busy in the hospital and didn't have time for him. And Magnus needed to talk to somebody immediately. He needed to talk to somebody who was like him, who could understand him and the whole situation he was in. Sadly, the only other person who had come to his mind was Ragnor Fell so he eventually ended up sending him a fire message and there he was, sitting in his living room and laughing his stupid, green ass off. Really helpful indeed. 

Magnus guessed it probably would have been a better solution to just tell one of his cats about his problem. Even though they weren't able to speak of course he was almost certain that they still would be able to give him better advice than Ragnor could ever do. 

“Are you done laughing?” he asked angrily and the other warlock shook his head.

“Not really.” 

“This isn't funny, Ragnor! I'm totally serious!” Magnus said and tried his best to sound calm and professional. If he was getting too emotional now Ragnor would only laugh about him even more and that was pretty much the last thing he wanted at the moment. “You have to tell me everything you know about the Lightwoods. The last time I saw this horrible woman was about sixteen years ago and I don't know what happened to her and her family after that.” 

To his surprise Ragnor actually stopped laughing and sighed instead. “Why do you think I would know about Shadowhunter business?” 

Magnus shrugged. “You also knew Maryse back then.” 

“I only met her once and I have to say that she didn't exactly make a good impression then.”

“Probably because she was trying to kill you” Magnus said without any humor in his voice.

“That could indeed have something to do with it” Ragnor replied. Suddenly he didn't seem to be the in the mood for laughing any longer. “Do you have any alcohol in your house?” he asked instead and looked around searchingly. 

Now Magnus was the one laughing. “Are you kidding me?” 

“Right.” Ragnor chuckled a bit. “For a second I forgot who I am talking to.” 

Magnus flicked his fingers and a bottle of vodka as well as two glasses came flying across the room, carefully landing on the coffee table in front of them. He had to admit that this one time Ragnor was right about something: alcohol indeed was the thing they needed now.

\-----------------

“You know what's really weird?” Magnus asked about half an hour and at least five glasses of vodka later and without waiting for Ragnor to reply to his question, which of course had been rather rhetorical anyways, he continued talking and gave the answer by himself: “I’m almost certain that the teenager I saw outside earlier was Maryse Lightwood’s daughter but she didn't look like a Shadowhunter.” 

Ragnor frowned and stopped drinking for a moment. “What do you mean? Didn’t she have the marks? The ‘holy angelic runes’ or however they call them?” 

Magnus shrugged. “I could barely see her skin. She was wearing jeans and a jacket. But I wasn't talking about that. I don’t know - it's probably the way she was moving I guess.”

Now Ragnor looked really confused. “I think you have to elaborate on that a little bit more” he said. 

“That's hard to explain but I already saw a lot of Shadowhunters in my life - way more than I wanted if I'm being honest - and they all move in a certain way, you know? Like angelic warriors, like they would have the right to tell everybody else what to do. Most Shadowhunters have this arrogance in their movements and their expressions all the time but she wasn't like that. She seemed to be totally normal but I'm almost one hundred percent sure that she's Maryse’s daughter because she looks exactly like her.” Ragnor was still frowning. Apparently he really was listening to what Magnus was saying.

“That's indeed strange” he said after a while. “Maybe you should ask Lorenzo about this issue.” 

Magnus choked on his drink and almost would've spilled the rest of it over the floor. “Why the hell should I do this?” he asked when he was able to speak again.

“Because he's the High Warlock of Brooklyn” Ragnor answered. “I'm pretty sure that he knows what’s going on in the New York Institute since the Shadowhunters always tend to ask the High Warlock for help when they have a problem they can't fix.” 

Magnus bit his lip. “Damn you're right” he murmured, even though he hated admitting it.

“Of course I am” Ragnor said, looking satisfied and settled back in the sofa.

“But I really don't want to talk with this guy” Magnus whined. “I can't stand him.” 

“It's been sixteen years already, Magnus” Ragnor said.

“Yes but for a warlock that's like the blink of an eye, especially for him. I met him on a party a few month ago and he still acted like a total jerk. Like I was fired or something like that and that he got my position because he's better than I am.” Magnus laughed. “He's still not able to see the truth.”

“And by truth you mean that you quit your job because you didn't want to be bothered by all those annoying Shadowhunters any longer and that he’s just your replacement?” Ragnor asked. 

“Exactly. He's not going to tell me anything except how great it is to be the High Warlock and how much better he is doing the job than I was.”

“Well … unfortunately I can't help you with him” Ragnor said. “I mean I'm still dead after all.” He grinned.

“That's also a way to avoid the Shadowhunters. I still can't believe that you really faked your own death.” Magnus rolled his eyes. “And they say I'm the drama queen.” 

Ragnor shrugged. “It is working perfectly. The clave thinks I'm dead and my life couldn't be any better.”

“I can imagine. You don't have to talk to Lorenzo after all. Last time I met him he was bragging about his antique pots and all the fancy furniture he has in his villa ... ” 

Magnus sighed dramatically and emptied his glas in one go. First Maryse and now Lorenzo … could this day even get worse? Just thinking about that awful warlock was already giving Magnus a very serious headache. Or it was the alcohol that slowly started to affect him. Probably a mixture of both.

Ragnor giggled. “Really?” 

“Yes.” Magnus rolled his eyes. “I do own this incredible vase that was given to me from the first emperor of China himself and Michelangelo once drew a picture of me because he was so overwhelmed by my beauty” he imitated the other warlock’s voice and Ragnor laughed hysterically. He probably also was a little bit drunk by now. 

“This guy isn't even 300 years old yet. If he really met the first emperor of China I'm Britney Spears.” 

Magnus was sure that normally he wouldn't have laughed about this but at the moment almost everything was absolutely hilarious to him. Even Ragnor's jokes.

“And did you tell him that you were having a thing with Michelangelo back then?” Ragnor asked when Magnus had calmed down again.

“No I didn't.” 

“You should have. Gosh why am I laughing the entire time? I'm over 700 years old and a very experienced drinker - I can't be wasted already.” 

“I used a spell on the bottle” Magnus explained and giggled. 

“Oh. So that's why.” Ragnor smirked. “You sneaky son of a bitch.”

Magnus shrugged and looked at the other one with a wide grin on his face. “I just thought that we could use a little fun now.” 

“I definitely agree with that” Ragnor said and grinned back. “You know what's actually funny?” he added after a while and Magnus shook his head. 

“No, what?” he asked.

“It's funny that you quit your job and moved here just in order to escape the Shadowhunters and now they are even closer to you than they were before” Ragnor answered and started laughing again. 

First Magnus wanted to snap at the other warlock for what he had said but in the end he just couldn't help but laugh about it as well. It really was kind of funny after all - at least it was in the moment. He was almost certain that this was going to change again as soon as the was sober. 

When Ragnor had finished laughing he stood up and started walking through the room. He stopped in front of the window and looked outside.

“Oh look at that” he said, sounding surprised. “Speaking about the devil ...” He turned around and grinned at Magnus with a mischievous expression on his face. “Are you sure that you really hate the fact that they are living next to you now cause that handsome, tall boy who was just walking into the house should be exactly your type.” 

Magnus frowned suspiciously. Was Ragnor trying to mess with him or was he serious?

“What? Who? Which boy?” he asked and stepped to the window as well but there was nobody to be seen. 

“Like I said - he walked into the house already” Ragnor said, still smirking. “But I guess you're gonna see him soon anyways. And I bet you're gonna like him.” 

Magnus snorted. “Little Shadowhunter brats definitely are not my type, especially not Maryse Lightwood’s children” he said. “No matter how annoyingly good-looking this family has always been - I would never have any interest in dating one of them.” 

Even the thought was ridiculous. Him dating a Shadowhunter … no way. Also he wasn't interested in dating somebody in general at the moment. He hadn't had a serious relationship for many years now and even though he sometimes yearned for having someone by his side again he knew that it was better that way. He always ended up getting his heart broken anyways. 

“Hmmm … I'm not really convinced of that. Let’s make it a bet.” 

A bet? Magnus frowned. “Are you serious?” he asked.

“Why not?” 

Magnus snorted but then he came to the conclusion that this could actually be quite funny. At least that was what this drunk brain thought. “Okay but I hope you know you're going to lose anyways.”

Ragnor laughed. “We're gonna see about that. So I predict that you are totally going to fall for the tall Lightwood boy sooner or later. And I do mean totally cause I know you and your fabile for tall, dark haired and good-looking guys. You have never been able to resist them and I bet you can't resist that one either. If you lose you do owe me a favour. Same the other way round. Deal?” 

Ragnor stretched out his hand. Magnus looked at it for a moment and then grabbed it eventually.  
“Deal” he said.


	3. Chapter 3

POV Alec 

A few minutes later, on their way back home, Izzy was still teasing Jace about Clary. Alec almost felt sorry for him but on the other hand he could understand his sisters excitement. Jace wasn't exactly a very emotional guy and he had never looked at a girl like that before. Alec didn't really understand why Jace was so impressed by her - she probably looked quite good he guessed but actually he couldn't see the appeal in her - but still he was glad that Jace had met her. Maybe she would be able to make him a little bit more … sensitive. Izzy probably thought the same. 

“I still can't believe it” she said with a grin on her face. “You just fell for her straight away.”

“I didn't fall for her” Jace protested, probably for the seventh time now, but Izzy didn't show any mercy on him: “Come on, just admit it. You thought she was cute” she went on and Jace rolled his eyes. “Maybe.” 

“Uh-hu” Izzy's grin turned into a smirk. “Then I guess you're going to drink quite a lot coffee in the next time.”

“Why didn't you ask her for her number though?” Alec asked. 

Jace shrugged. “I don’t even know her yet.” 

“Well normally that doesn't stop you” Izzy said. “How long did you know Kaelie before you joined her book club? Two minutes?” 

“Is bookclub a codeword for adult stuff I'm not supposed to know about yet?” Max asked suddenly and Alec choked. 

Jace looked horrified and so did Maryse. “I don’t think that this is the right time to talk about this” she said quickly. 

Max pouted but he didn't protest. 

Luckily they arrived at their house again just in that very moment.

“I think we all should get our stuff inside now” Maryse said, obviously trying to change the topic. Even though they wouldn't keep a lot of their old things Alec, Jace, Izzy, Maryse and Max each had one big bag with them in the trunk of the car with their most important stuff. 

“Good idea” Jace said quickly and opened the trunk. 

“Alec, sweetie, could you please go to our neighbour and ask if they want to come over at seven for dinner this evening?” Maryse asked. “I think that would be a nice way to introduce us to them. I’m going to carry your bag for you then.” 

Alec nodded. “Okay. Sure” he said and ignored the embarrassing pet name generously. Sometimes his mother seemed to forget that he wasn't seven years old any longer but seventeen.

Alec turned around and walked to the house to their right, the one where all the cats seemed to live. He wasn't exactly good in talking to strangers and it always made him feel a little uncomfortable but he was determined to do this. ‘How hard can it be?’ he thought and walked up the stairs which lead to the front porch. Their neighbours house looked very similar to their own, build from the same grey bricks and with a large white door at the front. The only difference was that they didn't have a porch like this one. Too bad actually. Alec really liked it. Especially the wooden porch swing which was hanging to his left. One of the cats they had seen earlier - the one with the fluffy grey fur - was lying on it and watched Alec suspiciously. 

“Please don't attack me I just want to ask something” he said and tried to look as innocent as possible. Alec didn't know why but he had always been way more afraid of cats than of dogs. Maybe it was just because he wasn't really used to them. All people he knew either didn't have any pets at all or dogs. He liked dogs. Of course he liked cats as well but he still thought they were kind of scary.

Luckily this cat didn't seem to be in the mood for moving too much so Alec just took a deep breath and stepped to the door. He raised his hand in order to ring the bell but before he could do so the door already opened and a young man bumped right into him. 

“Oh I'm sorry …” he apologized and Alec quickly stepped aside.

“No problem. I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to … actually … uh … I just wanted … ” he stammered and felt like a complete idiot.

The other man looked at him; his gaze wandered from Alec’s head down to his shoes and back up again multiple times and it almost seemed like he was searching for something … It was very weird and somehow also a little bit creepy so Alec slowly took another step back from him. 

“I … uh … I'm your new neighbour” he said eventually and hoped that his voice didn't sound as shaky as he imagined. 

“Oh no, I do not live here actually” the creepy man corrected him. “But my friend does. He's inside the house, in the living room I guess.”

‘Oh thank god’ Alec thought relieved. He really didn't want to have dinner with this guy if he was being honest. Not after that weird look he had just given him. 

“Oh, okay. Thank you” he said.

“No problem.” The stranger smiled and walked out of the house. “Just don't tell anybody that you have seen me, okay?” 

“Uh … okay …?” Alec answered confused.  
What the hell was going on here? Was this guy aware of the fact that this question made it sound like he was a wanted criminal? Wait … was he a criminal?! Like really?? Was their neighbour a criminal as well?!! God he never should have agreed to do this. 

Alec started to panic but then he suddenly realized the smell the other man was radiating. Alcohol. So he was probably drunk. That sure was the reason why he was behaving so strange. Still Alec payed attention to not come to close to him, just to be sure.

“I trust you, Lightwood Boy” he guy said in a low voice when he passed him and Alec tensed when he laid his hand on his shoulder, even though it was just for a fraction of a second.

Alec didn't know what to say in response - he just hoped that this wasn't supposed to be a threat - but when he turned around the mysterious stranger had disappeared anyways. 

What the … 

Alec shook his head and looked around searchingly but there was nobody to be seen.

“Okay wow” he mumbled eventually. “Who would have thought that this could get even more weird and creepy than it already was.” 

He just couldn't understand how this was possible. How could this dude disappear just like that? Not that he wouldn't be glad that he was gone but still it was very disturbing. 

“Well maybe I'm the one who's drunk here and I'm starting to hallucinate or that dude is really really fast” Alec continued talking to himself. This definitely wasn't how he had expected this whole thing to turn out - he was just supposed to invite their neighbour for dinner for fucks sake. 

He had no idea what had just happened but he decided to ignore it. Now wasn't the right time to think about this. Alec just wanted to get this over with as fast as possible.

The door in front of him was still wide open but of course he couldn't walk into the house of a complete stranger just like that so he rang the bell anyways even though it felt a little bit odd.

The answer came almost immediately: “Ragnor you stupid idiot is it really necessary to make noise like that?” a male voice said, sounding lowkey annoyed. “You know exactly that my head is about to explode and … Oh.” The young man, who had spoken, stopped talking when he arrived at the door and realized that Alec was not the person he had expected him to be (probably the strange guy he had met before). His eyes widened in surprise and he looked at Alec with a mixture of confusion and curiosity. 

Alec gulped because for some mysterious reason he felt very strange when he looked into his neighbours face. It was like there was a knot in his stomach and he felt that his hands started to get sweaty. It was a little bit like he always felt before taking an exam at school but at the same time it was totally different and even more intense. Alec wasn't sure what exactly was going on with him but he was sure that he didn't like this feeling.

“You are not Ragnor” the man who was causing that weird reactions in his body said eventually and Alec couldn't help but stare at his lips while he was talking. His mouth looked kind of nice. Just like his deep brown eyes and his brown-golden skin. And everything else on him to be honest. He was very good looking, Alec definitely couldn't deny that, but he was good looking in a different way than most other people were. His whole appearance was quite … striking. 

His black hair was streaked with blue strands and he was wearing makeup. His clothes were fancy and very colorful and he was wearing jewelry such as rings (at least five on one hand) and a silver ear clip on his right ear. Alec was sure that he would look absolutely ridiculous if he wore something like that but on him it looked perfect. 

“No I'm not. I-I'm Alec. Alec Lightwood” he stammered when he was done staring at the other one and remembered that he still needed to say something back. 

The young man winced. It was barely noticeable but Alec saw it nevertheless. It almost seemed like the other one was reacting to his name but of course that wasn't making any sense because he couldn't know him ... or could he?

“I … uh … I came here just when your friend left so the door was still open but I thought it would be better to ring anyways” Alec quickly started to explain the situation. “I mean of course I couldn't just walk into your house, Mister … uh … ”   
He looked at the sign next to the door. “Mr. Bane.” 

“Oh my god please don't call me like that” Mr. Bane said, sounding horrified. “That just reminds me of how old I am.”

Well now he was definitely exaggerating. He couldn't be that old. He was older than Alec was, that much was obvious, but not as old as he made it sound. Alec guessed that he was in his early twenties, maybe five or six years older than him. 

“Uhm okay so … ?” 

“Magnus. Just call me Magnus” the handsome man said and by that answered to Alec’s unspoken question.

“Great. That's a very nice name … oh uh … I'm one  
of your new neighbour by the way. Did I already mention that? Me and my family moved in this morning” Alec continued and blushed when Magnus looked straight into his eyes. “Yes I know” he said and the sound of his voice almost made Alec shiver - in a good way. 

“Sorry if I'm disturbing you but my mom wanted me to ask if you would like to come over for dinner at seven this evening so we can get to know each other.” 

As soon as the words had left his mouth Alec already regretted them. He definitely should have formulated this differently. ‘My mom wants me to ask you … ’ did not sound very mature. In fact it rather sounded like he was a little child, like he was ten or something like that. Alec just wanted to die of shame and he could feel his face heating up.

‘Well at least you said mom and not mommy’ a sarcastic voice in his head mocked him.

Magnus raised one of his eyebrows, apparently surprised by what Alec had said. “That’s very nice of her but unfortunately I'm very busy this evening” he replied.

“Oh okay.” Alec didn't know why but somehow he was a little bit disappointed. He would have loved to find out more about this guy - he seemed to be pretty interesting. “I mean, I understand. So … uh … I should probably go then.” Alec laughed awkwardly and ran his hand through his hair, messing it up even more. He turned around and was already walking down the stairs when he heard the other man's voice behind him: “Wait a second!” 

POV Magnus 

Magnus hated his life. Who had given the Lightwood boy the right to look like that? This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair at all. Judging by the way he acted and the way he smiled it was almost inconceivable that he could really be Maryse’s son but there was no doubt about that any longer. He had said that he was a Lightwood; he had told Magnus right into his face and he had invited him for dinner. This could only mean that he didn't know. He didn't know about the Shadow World. He didn't know that he was was a Nephilim and he didn't know that he was a warlock. And of course he also didn't know about the history Magnus had with his mother. That they weren't exactly fond of each other and that they would probably rather die than have dinner together.   
The only question was - what had happened to Maryse? Wasn’t she a Shadowhunter any longer? Or was she and her children just didn't know … 

Magnus desperately wished he had more information about the matter. That definitely had been an advantage of being the High Warlock of Brooklyn - he had always known exactly what was going on around him. Now he had to talk to Lorenzo to find out what he wanted to know. ‘I already knew that the decision to give up my position would come back to me someday just to bite me in the ass’ he thought embittered. 

“Oh okay” Alec Lightwood stammered after Magnus had turned down the invitation and laughed embarrassed. “I mean, I understand. So … uh … I should probably go then.” 

He turned around and started to walk away. Magnus watched him leave and just when he arrived at the stairs it came to his mind that the dinner actually was the perfect opportunity to find out what was going on with the Lightwoods. Also Magnus really wanted to see Maryse's expression when he suddenly showed up in front of her door and she realized that she had invited him to eat with her and her children without being aware of it - him out of all people. This could actually be quite funny … 

Magnus didn't want anything to do with the Lightwoods - even if they really were no Shadowhunters any longer - but he was way too curious to let this opportunity pass. Also he just couldn't resist the temptation to give Maryse a little heart attack - she definitely deserved it after all …   
The decision had been made: “Wait a second!” 

Alec stopped immediately and turned around.   
“Huh?” he asked with a frown and looked so adorable that Magnus couldn't help but smile.

“I'm going to come” he said and watched with fascination how the boy’s suspicious expression turned into a smile. “That's great. But what happened to your plans?” 

Magnus shrugged. “I guess I can cancel them this one time” he said casually - after all he had not had any plans in the first place. At least not any important ones. After all the work he had done in the last few days he had planned to just relax for this one evening but well … now his plans had changed.

“Okay. Then I'm going to see you later?” Alec asked shyly.

“Sure. See you then” Magnus answered waited till the Lightwood boy had disappeared again. Only then he walked back inside as well and closed the door behind him.

\--------------------------- 

A few hours later Magnus was standing in front of his closet and he didn't know what to wear. He guessed that there wasn't any dress code for having dinner with the woman who wanted to murder him and his friends when he had seen her for the last time … 

‘What do you think Chairman?” he asked the cat who was sitting on his bed. “Should I wear the blue shirt or the black one?” 

The cat just stared at him blankly and meowed.

“You're right, You're right” Magnus said with a sigh as if his cat had actually answered him. “I don’t know why I even care. It's not like I wanted to impress anybody over there …”

Well except Alec maybe. He was kinda cute and Magnus had a feeling that he had been impressed by him. 

He wondered how Maryse would react if he started hitting on her son … she would probably be furious. Actually it would be quite funny to do this. Him flirting with Alec would definitely piss her off and Magnus loved pissing off people who deserved it. Maybe it was childish but Magnus didn't care. Still he wouldn't do it of course. Not like that.

He wouldn't flirt with Alec just to annoy his mother cause that would be mean and Magnus wasn't a mean person. Alec wasn't the one he couldn't stand; he didn't even know him yet. Also acting like that could get him into trouble as well and it would probably hurt him and Magnus definitely didn't want that. Alec had never done anything to him. He wasn't his mother. He was innocent. He wasn't responsible for the mistakes his mother had made in the past. Probably he didn't even know about them. It would be wrong to drag him into this. It was a thing between Maryse and Magnus only and Alec or his siblings didn't need to know about it.

Magnus was sure that he was going to find other ways to have his fun with Maryse this evening … starting by choosing the outfit he thought would irritate her the most.

\----------------------

When he was standing in front of the Lightwoods house a few minutes later Magnus started having doubts. Was this really a good idea? Probably not.  
‘Who are you trying to fool here - of course it's not a good idea. It's probably the worst idea you have ever had’ Magnus thought. And that was definitely saying something - he was over four hundred years old after all and he had had many bad ideas in his life.

Magnus shook his head. “I have really lost my mind” he mumbled but in the end he knocked nevertheless. He had not spend hours to dress up for nothing. 

Magnus waited until eventually a blond boy opened the door for him. ‘A Herondale’ he thought immediately. There was no way he could possibly be wrong about this. His confident expression, his curly hair, the way he smirked … almost everything about him screamed that he was an ancestor of the oldest and most famous Shadowhunter family ever. Everything except the fact that he didn't have any runes of course. 

Now Magnus was even more confused. He had thought that the last Herondales had died sixteen years ago … and as far as he knew they didn't have any children. But maybe he was wrong. Well apparently he had to be wrong cause if every Herondale really was dead it was impossible that one of them lived with Maryse Lightwood and her children. Maybe they had adopted him. Magnus wondered if the boy knew about his ‘real’ parents but he highly doubted it. How could Maryse have told him if he wasn't supposed to know anything about the Shadow World?

There were just so many questions Magnus had no answer to and it was really annoying.

“Hey is everything okay?” the blond Herondale asked suddenly and Magnus realized that he had probably been staring at him.

“Uh, yes, it's nothing” he lied quickly. “You just reminded me of somebody. It’s nothing important.” 

“Okay then” the Herondale said and shook his hand. “I'm Jace by the way. And you are Magnus right?” 

“Yes the one and only” Magnus replied with a grin on his face, making the other one laugh.

“Come on in” he said eventually and lead Magnus into the house. As soon as he had closed the door behind them two other kids appeared in the hallway: the girl Magnus had seen earlier and a little boy with tousled dark brown hair. 

“Hi I'm Izzy and this is Max” the girl said and hugged Magnus enthusiastically.

Magnus was perplex and shocked and he didn't know how to react. He couldn't remember that something like this had ever happened to him before; that a Shadowhunter was hugging him just like that. Of course this girl didn't know who he was but still Magnus was speechless. “Uhm …” 

“Oh sorry” Izzy said when he cleared his throat and let go off him immediately. “Maybe this was a little bit too much.” 

“Don't worry. Too much is my middle name” Magnus said and winked at her.

Izzy giggled. “You're funny” she said. “And I absolutely love your outfit.”

“Oh really?” Magnus definitely liked her. She wasn't like her mother at all. 

Just in that moment Maryse also joined the scene. She was wearing jeans and a red shirt and looked more mundane than ever. This could only mean that she really wasn't a Shadowhunter any longer.

When she saw Magnus she froze and stared at him with wide eyes. It was almost as funny as Magnus had imagined it to be. He grinned at her and for a moment Magnus thought that she would throw him out straight away but she didn't. Actually he was quite impressed by how fast she had gained her composure back again. 

“Hello. You have to be our new neighbour then” she said and forced a smile on her face. It almost looking convincing. “I’m glad that you could make it.” 

As if. 

“I'm glad too.” Magnus’s smile was so exaggerated by now that his face hurt. This whole situation was just so weird. Magnus had never thought that he would have dinner with Maryse Lightwood someday. If he told Catarina she probably wouldn't believe him. He couldn't believe it either if he was being honest. 

“Come on, we're going to go into the living room” Izzy said and pulled Magnus with her. “Alec and mom are still preparing the food. I'm not allowed to enter the kitchen for some strange reason … “

“Oh do you need help?” Magnus asked Maryse but she shook her head.

“No thank you. Just go with Isabelle and Max.” 

“Okay.”


	4. Chapter 4

POV Alec 

_“Stay here, sweetie. I'll be back in a second, okay?”  
Maryse kneeled down in front of him and looked at Alec with a serious expression on her face._

_He nodded obediently. “Yes mommy.”_

_Maryse smiled and stroked his cheek. “You're a good boy” she said, then she left the room and closed the door behind her._

_Alec looked around. He didn't know where he was but he liked the banner that was hanging on the wall to his left side. It was very large and depicted a big, majestic creature with wings, that was rising from a lake in an explosion of gold light and bright sparkles: an angel._

_The angel was holding a sword and a cup in its hands but Alec didn't care about that. The only thing he could really concentrate on was the golden light that radiated from the heavenly creature and filled the entire drawing. It looked so beautiful and fascinating and he desperately wanted to touch it but he couldn't reach the banner because he was too small. Alec raised himself on tiptoes but still his arms were way too short …_

“Alec? Alec?!! Stop daydreaming, your noodles are boiling over!!”

Alec blinked. Where did Izzy’s voice suddenly come from and what the hell was she talking about? He was confused but then he looked down and immediately awoke from his trance like state when he saw what was happening. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck” he cursed and quickly removed the pot from the heat before things could get even worse but unfortunately some of the hot water sloshed on Alec’s hand during the process.

“Damn it!” He quickly pulled his hand back and bit his lip. Fuck this was really painful.

“Gosh Alec what are you doing here? Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Izzy asked reproachfully. “You have to cool that immediately.” 

She grabbed him by his sleeve and dragged him to the kitchen sink. Alec sighed in relief when shortly afterwards the cold water was running over his hand.

“Better?” Izzy asked.

“Yeah. Thank you” Alec said, still slightly embarrassed about his clumsiness. 

Izzy looked at him and shook her head. “And they say that I'm a nightmare in the kitchen.”

“I was just lost in thoughts for a second” Alec defended himself, causing Izzy to roll her eyes.  
“Yeah I saw that, genius. Not exactly the best time to fantasize about hot chicks … or guys” she added with a little smirk. 

Alec blushed. “I was just thinking about a dream I had yesterday” he said, but actually it was more than that. It wasn't just a normal dream he was talking about: it was a dream he kept on having since he was child. It always came back to him at some point and there was nothing Alec could do against it. The scene he imagined was always exactly the same and somehow the dream felt different from all the other dreams he was having usually - more intense and more real. Sometimes Alec thought that maybe it was a memory of something that had really happened at some point in his life and that he couldn't remember … but still it was weird of course. He didn’t understand why his brain was so focused on this one drawing in particular. What was so special about it? Probably nothing but still he dreamed about it more often than it was normal. 

“Was it a sexy dream?” Izzy asked, still smirking.

“What? No!” Alec said quickly. “It was just … confusing. I dreamed about a drawing but I don't know if I just made it up or if I really saw it somewhere in real life.”

Izzy chuckled. “That's my brother: while other teenagers dream about having sex or other hot stuff he dreams about visiting an art gallery. You're just too precious for this world.”

For a short moment Alec thought about telling Izzy the whole truth, about the reason why this dream felt so weird to him but he decided against it. After all he didn't really know himself. He didn't know why he was thinking about it that much. It was just a dream, nothing more. Probably he was exaggerating.  
“Are you making fun of me?” 

“Noooo never … okay maybe a little bit.” Izzy laughed. “However … do you want to hear something that is actually confusing?” she asked.

Alec frowned. “What do you mean?” he asked back and gave his sister a curious look. 

“Wait a second ... “ Izzy quickly checked if somebody could hear them, then she returned to Alec who was still standing at the kitchen sink with his injured hand under the cool water. “I think that mom and Magnus know each other” she said, her voice low and barley more than a whisper.

“Really?” Alec’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “Why do you think that?”

“Well … she looked like she recognised him” Izzy started to explain. “But she didn't seem to be very happy about seeing him. She stared at him as if he had three heads or something like that.”

That was indeed strange. “But how could she possibly know him? And if she does why doesn't she tell us about it?”

Izzy shrugged. “That's the question here” she said. “I really don't know why but mom is keeping something from us.” 

Alec nodded slowly and sighed. “I think you're right.”  
Their mother’s behaviour had indeed been a little bit strange lately. At first Alec had not been sure if he was just being too dramatic so he hadn't thought that much about the issue yet but now that his sister was telling him that she felt the same he was convinced that this couldn't just be a coincidence and that he had not been exaggerating at all - there definitely was something going on … something their mother was trying to hide from them.

There had been many signs during the last four weeks and the most significant one was their move to Maysfield. Of course Alec understood that his mother wanted to make a fresh start at a new place where nothing would remind her of her past with Robert but still he felt like there was something off about the whole thing. 

Their parents were having trouble for over three years already before they eventually got divorced and Alec was almost certain that his mother had known about Robert having an affair all along. She hadn't been shocked at all when it came to light so she must have seen it coming. 

Even though the break up had of course not been an easy time for both of their parents Alec just couldn't imagine that it had affected them that much that they needed to live in different towns from now on because for that they just didn't seem to care enough about each other anymore. 

Earlier, in the car, when Alec had realized how exhausted his mother looked he had assumed that it was just because of Robert but the longer he thought about it the more he was convinced that there had to be something else. Something that would explain why she wanted to move somewhere else so badly and why she made it happen that quickly … 

“So what are we gonna do about all this?” Izzy asked eventually after they had been silent for a few minutes, both lost in thoughts. “I mean I don't think that she's going to tell us what's going on when we ask her.”

Alec was just about to answer when suddenly Maryse came back into the kitchen again. Izzy winced when she saw her but their mother didn't seem to realize. Alec was pretty sure that she had not heard their conversation but she definitely was surprised to see her daughter in the kitchen. 

“Izzy I thought you were in the living room with our guest” she said. 

“Oh, yeah … uh Jace is with him. I just wanted to get him something to drink but when I came into the kitchen Alec had a little accident so …” 

“Accident? What happened? Are you alright?” Maryse immediately interrupted Izzy and looked at Alec with concern written over her face. 

Alec nodded and turned the water off. “Yes, I'm fine. It stopped hurting already” he said.

Maryse sighed and shook her head. “Can't I leave you alone in the kitchen for five minutes?” 

“Apparently not.” 

“Well … I'm going to finish cooking then. Alec, you take a wet washcloth and wrap it around your hand. Go into the living room and wait there.”

Alec nodded. “Okay” he mumbled embarrassed. 

POV Magnus 

Magnus in the meanwhile was sitting in the living room with Jace and Max and was surprised about how easily he came along with the two boys. Max was asking him questions about his cats and everybody who showed interest in Magnus’s favorite animals immediately was his friend. 

When he was just telling him a story about Chairman though his phone suddenly started ringing and Magnus had to interrupt himself. He wondered who was calling him cause not many of his friends had his phone number. Namely, most of them were warlocks as well and prefered sending him fire messages instead. Also his clients normally communicated with him in a different way since they were all downworlders … 

With a frown he pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked on the display, his eyes widening in surprise when he saw who was the one calling him. It was his best friend Cat who he had so desperately been trying to reach earlier. As far as he knew her shift in the hospital wasn't over yet but apparently she was just having a little break … 

“Oh I'm sorry but I really have to take this. It's probably important” he apologised and stood up again.

“No problem” the blond Herondale said. “But you should maybe better go outside - the connection in here is pretty bad.” 

“Okay, thank you. I'll be back in a second” Magnus said quickly and stepped out of the front door, his phone already glued to his ear. 

“Hi Cat, can you hear me?” he asked.

“Yes of course” the answer came straight away. “Now please tell me what the hell is going on … did something happen? You left over twenty messages  
on my phone for god's sake so I hope you have a valid reason … “

Oh right. Magnus had already forgotten about that.

“I'm pretty sure that it wasn't that much” he defended himself but actually Cat was right. He had maybe exaggerated a little bit … but ‘too much’ was his middle name after all. At least a lot of people were saying this ... 

“Mags…please. Why did you want me to call you back so desperately? Is there a problem?” Cat asked. Probably she was not having much time to talk so Magnus came to the point immediately.

“I'm having dinner with the Lightwoods” he said.

“What? Magnus if you think this is funny …”

“I'm not joking, Cat. I'm actually standing right in front of their house at the moment. They are my new neighbours.” 

Cat seemed to be speechless for a second, then she sighed deeply. “Oh my god” she mumbled and Magnus couldn't agree more. “Yeah. I also can't believe it” he said. 

“So Maryse Lightwood really invited you for dinner??” Cat asked, still sounding incredulously. 

“Actually one of her sons did. And he didn't know who I am” Magnus corrected her.

Cat sighed again. “And he's pretty, right?” 

“Uh yes. But that's not why I accepted the invitation. I mean everyone of the Lightwoods is pretty. Actually I feel like all Shadowhunters are … sometimes it seems to me as if those people were already born with abs and absolutely gorgeous faces. Or do they have a rune for that I don't even know … do they have to work out at all or did the angel just bless them all with excellent fighting skills … such a shame that most of them are complete morons it's such a waste honestly … ”

Magnus wanted to go on but Cat interrupted him. 

“Mags, you just wanted to tell me why you thought that it was a good idea to go to Maryse for dinner” she reminded him.

“Oh right. I actually just want to find out what’s going on with them. I mean they all don't have any runes and the kids don't know about the Shadow World” Magnus explained to her.

“Oh.” 

“Say that again. Do you know what happened with them?” Magnus asked. 

Catarina thought about his question for a moment. “I don't think so” she said eventually. “At least not exactly ... I guess that the Lightwoods maybe got stripped off their runes because of their time in the circle but I'm not sure. I know that all of Valentines followers got punished in some way, some more than others depending on how close they were to him … and since the Lightwoods sticked to him till the very end it's possible that their punishment was very severe.” 

“Cat you're a genius!” Magnus exclaimed. “I can't believe I didn't think of this. You're probably right. Thank you so much - I knew you would be way more helpful in that issue than Ragnor was.” 

Cat chuckled. “I can imagine.” 

“When I asked him for help he was basically just cracking jokes the entire time and then he said that I should talk to Lorenzo and drank half of my vodka” he summed up the afternoon with his friend. 

“Yep that definitely sounds like Ragnor” Cat said and laughed. “Sorry Mags but I have to go now. There’s an emergency in the hospital.” 

“Oh that's no problem” Magnus said. “You already helped me enough. Now go and save the world as you always do.” 

Cat chuckled. “You're really cute sometimes. Bye Mags.” 

Magnus grinned. “Bye Kitty-Cat” he said, knowing exactly how much his friend hated it when he called her like that but he just couldn't resist the temptation. Magnus could almost hear how Cat was rolling her eyes at the other end of the line. 

“Alright, I take everything back” she said. “You're not cute at all.” 

“Awww love you too” Magnus said but Cat hung up on him before he was done speaking.

“Rude.” 

Magnus put his phone back into his pocket and chuckled. Catarina had a very special place in his heart and he was really glad that he had her. She was one of the kindest people Magnus had ever met and he had met lots of people in the past four hundred years. Catarina actually was even older than him and in every century she had lived in she had always tried to help people and make the world a better place. 

Magnus had always been impressed by her kindness and her confidence - no matter how impossible something seemed to be she never gave up hope and kept fighting. Sometimes he wished that he was a little bit more like her, more hopeful for things to change to the better, but over time he had slowly began to lose his faith. Without Cat he would probably be a very grumpy, old man with a bunch of cats now who hated the world and thought that everything was bad.

“Grumpy old man” Magnus mumbled and laughed about his own thoughts. Well actually he did have a bunch of cats so he was already halfway there. And he was old. Kind of. Depending from whose perspective one was looking at it.

Magnus walked back into the house and closed the door behind him.

\-----------------------

A few minutes later, when he was eventually sitting at the table together with the whole Lightwood family and saw all the delicious looking food, he suddenly realized how hungry he was. Magnus licked his lips in anticipation but then his gaze fell on the empty plate which was standing right in front of him and a rather unpleasant memory came to his mind.

Suddenly he felt like he was thrown into the past and was reliving the first meeting the Downworlders had had with the Shadowhunters in order to discuss the accords, the rules which were supposed to guarantee the Downworlders more equality and justice in the Shadow World. Today the accords were fixed rules every Shadowhunter had to stick to but back then when they had still been discussing about the issue Magnus had not thought that it would actually come true someday.

The Nephilim had invited a few downworld representatives into one of their institutes (every institute had a room without any angelic magic so that people like Magnus could enter it without dying a painful death) and they were having dinner together “in order to create a more casual and pleasant atmosphere for the discussions”. Of course that had not worked quite well. Actually it had been one of the most uncasual and unpleasant evenings Magnus had ever had. 

Most of the Shadowhunters had looked at him and his friends as if they were some kind of disgusting creatures that were not worthy of breathing the same air as they did and at the end of the evening they had even thrown away the plates the downworld representatives had eaten from because they didn't want to use them anymore after they had been touching them. 

Now that this memory had come back into his mind again Magnus couldn't help but wonder if Maryse would throw away his plate away as well when he had finished eating ... 

“Is something wrong with the food?” a voice asked suddenly. Magnus raised his eyes again and saw that it was Alec who had been speaking, the tall boy who had invited him in the first place. 

“Oh I'm sorry, I was just lost in thoughts” Magnus said and smiled apologetically, trying his best to ignore the fact that he actually felt a little bit tense inside. “The food looks really tempting, Alec ... by the way I was wondering if your name is short for something? Alexander maybe?” Magnus looked at him curiously.

Alec blushed and nodded. "Yes it’s Alexander actually" he answered. Magnus smiled in response. He really liked that name. It sounded very nice. Overall this boy was just getting cuter and cuter with every minute that passed ... Damn it. 

“You shouldn't call him like that though” Jace tossed in. “He hates it.” 

“Oh okay. Then Alec it is.”

After that they were eating in silence for a few minutes until at some point Magnus just couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer. He wasn't used to having dinner without saying anything so he cleared his throat and starting talking: “So … you just moved here?” he asked and hoped that his statement would lead to some harmless smalltalk. Or maybe to the revelation whether Catarina’s theory was right or not. 

Jace, the blond one, nodded. “Yes. We lived in New York before but then our father decided to be a dick so we moved here.” 

“Don't talk like that, Jace” Maryse said. 

“Why not? I mean he really is a dick. First he cheated on you and now he suddenly wants nothing to do with us any longer. That's not how a father should behave or is it?” Jace asked angrily. 

Maryse bit her lip and for the fraction of a second Magnus actually felt sorry for her. 

Max looked like he was about to cry so Magnus quickly decided to say something in order to save the situation. He definitely didn't want to have a front row seat to some big lightwood family drama.

“Oh what a coincidence I used to live in New York as well” he said. 

“Oh really?” Izzy asked immediately. “Is that where you know our mother from? Were you two working together or something like that?” 

Magnus stopped eating and Maryse choked on her food. 

“Uh…” 

“Why do you think that we know each other?” Maryse asked tensley when she was able to talk again and drank a sip of water. Magnus guessed that she was wishing it was vodka instead.

Izzy rolled her eyes. “Because I'm not blind mom. So how do you know each other?” 

Well now shit was about to go down. Obviously Maryse wasn't as good in pretending as she had thought.

Magnus knew that he should actually enjoy that the woman he hated was about to get exposed but for some strange reason he didn't. He saw how Maryse was desperately thinking about what she should say while all of her kids were waiting and looking at her demandingly.

“Yes we were working together” Magnus suddenly heard himself saying and he couldn't believe that he was actually doing this. That he was saving her ass. 

“When your mother was having trouble at work she always came to me for help. I was like her external advisor.” That actually wasn't even a lie. 

Izzy seemed to be suspicious though. “Oh really? So you are like an expert for insurances?” 

Insurances? Maryse was an insurance saleswoman now?! Really??! 

“Uh … yes” Magnus said and hoped that he sounded convincing because in reality he didn't have a damn clue about insurances. He was a warlock - he didn't need any insurances. 

“Oh you don't look like you would sell insurances” Max said surprised. “You look more like a fashion designer or something like that. The men my mom is working with usually look so strict and boring. They would never style their hair as cool as you do.” 

Magnus was flattered. “Awww thank you” he said and slid his fingers through his hair. “I know my style is very unique. But I'm my own boss so I can wear whatever I want.” He winked at Max. “I even have a tattoo.” 

“Wow really? I would also love to have one but mom says I'm too young. And she hates tattoos” Max said.  
Magnus raised his eyebrows. “Oh really? So you never had any tattoos … no pictures or funny symbols on your skin?” he asked mischievously and grinned at Maryse, who had put on a perfect poker face. “No, I haven't” she said without breaking eye contact with Magnus. “I'm … allergic.” 

Allergic? Magnus almost would have laughed out loudly when he heard this but he was able to hold it back in the last second.

“I really am” Maryse said without blinking when she saw the expression on Magnus's face. “Do you want some more potatoes, Mr. Bane?” 

Oh so she was trying to change the topic. Wise move. Or she just wanted Magnus to continue eating cause with his mouth full he couldn't talk and spill her secret to her children.

“No thank you, I think I have eaten enough now” he said, completely aware of the fact that he was in control of the situation here. Maryse was now the one who was at the mercy of him and Magnus was enjoying every second of it.


	5. Chapter 5

POV Alec 

Izzy had been right. There definitely was something going on here. During dinner both Magnus and their mother behaved really weird. Whenever they talked it seemed like they were having a contest about who was able to fake a smile in the most convincing way. Neither of them was exactly successful though.

Also the story Magnus had told them about how he and their mother knew each other didn't sound very plausible to Alec. He agreed with Max - Magnus didn't look like he had a clue about insurances but of course he wasn't going to say his thoughts out loud. 

Overall Alec had not said very much during the last few minutes because he was way too confused about everything. Their new neighbour still seemed suspicious to him but on the other hand he really wanted to trust him for some reason … 

After they had finished eating Magnus said that he had to go home again. He thanked Maryse for the invitation and Alec accompanied him to the door while his siblings were clearing the table. 

“Well Alexander” Magnus said and smiled at him.   
“That was a very … interesting evening with you and your family.” 

Yeah, interesting definitely was the right word here. Actually Alec just wanted to thank him and then say goodbye to their neighbour but when he opened his mouth something completely different came out: “You didn't say the truth.” 

Magnus raised his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”

“Uh … you know … about how you and my mother know each other” Alec stammered, suddenly very insecure. “I don’t think that what you told us is what really happened.” 

Alec was afraid that Magnus would get angry with him now but he didn't. Actually he even grinned slightly. “I guess I'm not a very good actor then” he said and looked at Alec. “But I think you should rather ask your mother about this and not me.” 

“Oh - okay.” Alec was even more confused now but he nodded nevertheless. 

“Well then … see you around, Alexander” Magnus said with a smile and Alec nodded again, feeling stupid. “Yeah, uh, bye then” he stammered and watched how their neighbour walked away. Jace always said that he didn't understand what girls found so fascinating about boys butts but Alec definitely did. Magnus's butt looked really nice, especially in those pants … 

As if their neighbour had heard Alec’s inappropriate thoughts he suddenly turned his head and grinned at him, when he caught him staring. Alec blushed deeply and quickly went back into the house, slamming the door shut behind him in a sudden wave of panic. 

He didn't know what was wrong with him. Why had he been staring at Magnus in the first place? It was plain stupid. 

In contrast to Magnus he was just a child. He would never be interested in him in a romantic or sexual way. Or any other way probably. He definitely was way older than Alec was, way more experienced and mature and moreover he also was the complete opposite of him. They were from totally different worlds. Nothing would ever happen between them.  
Alec couldn't argue that he found him attractive but he should probably pay attention to not fall for him cause that definitely wouldn't end well. 

‘Okay stop worrying now, you don't even know him yet’ he tried to calm himself down. ‘Maybe he turns out to be a complete jerk.’

With that thought he felt a little bit better again and walked into the kitchen to help the others.

\---------------------- 

After they were finished Jace, Izzy and Max walked upstairs to unpack their stuff and arrange their new rooms. Alec wanted to follow them but Maryse held him back.

“Alec, could I talk to you for a second?” she asked. Her voice was oddly tense and her eyes serious. Alec nodded. 

“Sure” he said and sat down at the kitchen table. Maybe she was going to tell him what was going on here. Maybe he would finally get some answers. 

“So what is it?” he asked curiously while Maryse sat down on the chair opposite to his.

She took a deep breath. “It's about our neighbour.” Oha. Alec tried not to look too excited. 

“Oh” he said. “What about him?” 

“Well…” Maryse cleared her throat. “I guess you already figured out that the insurance thing was a lie.”

“Uh yes. That was pretty obvious. But you do know him?” Alec asked, just to be sure. His mother nodded slowly. “Yes I do but not as good as you may think. We just saw each other in a few occasions and I'm not sure if … if we can trust him.” 

Alec frowned. This was really getting more and more strange with every minute. 

“Why that?” he asked confused. “He seemed to be very … nice.” Yes, nice definitely was the right word. Of course he was also mysterious and different than anybody Alec had ever met before but still he just couldn't seriously imagine him not being trustworthy - or could he? He didn't know anything about him after all ...

“Yes he does seem to be friendly but that's all part of his … his charm” Maryse explained. “He wants people to trust him, that's his tactic. But he isn't as innocent as he wants to make you believe. He's a playboy, an alcoholic and he doesn't care about any rules … I just want you to be careful with him. He's not a good influence. Do you understand, Alexander?” She grabbed Alec’s hand and looked at him emphatically. “Please just don't let yourself be too impressed by him.” 

Alec didn't answer directly cause he didn't know what to say. Normally he definitely wasn't a person who judged people just by what others were saying about them but in that case he wasn't sure what to believe. It was his mother speaking after all and why should she lie to him like that? But on the other hand she had been lying a lot in the last few days. Maybe not always directly but keeping something from her own children like she was still doing now also wasn't exactly sincere. 

In the end Alec decided to not promise anything to his mother. He had no evidence that she was right about what she was saying but also nothing that could prove her wrong. She knew more than he did.

“How can you be so sure about him if you have just met him a few times?” Alec asked. “Also that's all in the past if I got this right. You haven't seen him in a while so maybe he has changed since then.”

In his opinion this was a very good point but Maryse shook her head. “I don't think that people like him can change. Maybe they try but they can't” she said.  
People like him, it echoed in Alec’s head. 

For some reason his mother's words felt like a slap in the face, even though she didn't say them in a overly hateful way. Still Alec was shocked to hear her talk like that, like their neighbour wasn't equal to them, like he wasn't as valuable just because he was different. Maybe Magnus wasn't as innocent as Alec thought but he was sure that he didn't deserve to be talked about like that just because he liked enjoying his life.

“Everybody can change” Alec said and pulled his hand back. “And I would prefer to make my own opinion about him.” 

Maryse pressed her lips together. Obviously she was not very happy about his reaction but she didn't say anything. Apparently the conversation was over now. 

“I'm going to go upstairs then” Alec said and left the kitchen. 

So his mother obviously didn't like Magnus. He wondered how she would react if he or one of his siblings became friends with him. Would she forbid them to talk to him? This was just ridiculous. 

Alec wouldn't judge Magnus before he didn't know him better. The only problem was that he wasn't exactly good in getting to know other people and with Magnus it would surely be even more complicated because he was so different than he was. 

What should they talk about? Alec didn't have a clue. He sighed and stopped walking when he passed the front door. Maybe he should go for a walk for a few minutes. He really needed to have his peace right now. He needed some time to think about everything and he needed fresh air. 

Alec quickly made a decision and stepped outside. His mother would probably be angry with him when he came back again but he didn't care. He wasn't a child anymore. If he wanted to go somewhere he surely didn't need his mother's permission first. Also it was summer. It wouldn't be dark before 10 pm and he would definitely be back by then.

Still he decided to write Izzy a short message cause he didn't want his family to worry about him.

‘Tell mom I'm taking a walk. Gonna be back soon. Need to think’ he wrote.

‘Okay’ the answer came back almost immediately. No questions or anything like that. Just one word and a smiley. Alec was relieved and put his smartphone back into the pocket of his pants.

He didn't have a clue where he wanted to go, what he was looking for exactly so he just randomly choose a direction and started walking. Luckily he didn't have to go very far until he found a perfect place to stay. He hadn't seen it yet cause they had been going into the other direction earlier. There was a little park, just at the end of the road they were living in now, with a fountain, trees and a few benches. 

‘Perfect’ Alec thought happily. He had always liked the sound of trickling water. It was perfect for calming down and getting lost in thoughts for a while.

He sat down on one of the benches and stretched out his legs. This definitely felt very different than being in Central Park. Apart from Alec there was almost nobody else there and it was peacefully quiet - or at least it had been until he suddenly heard somebody talking right next to him. “Hey there.” 

Alec was confused. Where the hell did that voice just come from? He looked around searchingly but there was nobody.

“Great now I'm really going insane” he mumbled.

“No you're not” the voice said, sounding amused.   
“I'm up here.” 

What the … ? Alec looked up and couldn't be more surprised when he saw a black haired girl sitting in the old tree that was standing next to the bench. 

“Hi again” she said and laughed at Alec’s startled expression. “Sorry if I scared you.” 

“No … uh … it's alright” Alec said and cleared his throat. “I'm just a little bit surprised.” 

The girl laughed again. She seemed to be in his age, maybe a little bit younger. “I totally understand” she said. “You're probably new here in the village right?” 

“Yes. How did you figure that out that quickly? Is it normal for people here to sit in trees instead of benches?” Alec tried to joke.

The girl shook her head, chuckling. “No. But you're approximately my age I guess what means that you're probably still going to school. There’s only one school here in the area and I haven't seen you there” she explained. “And normally people avoid this bench.” She nodded at where Alec was sitting.

“Why that? Is there something wrong with it?” Alec asked.

“People think it's cursed.”

For real? “You're kidding me right?” 

“No I'm not. They really think that. Don't know why though” the girl said.

Alec sighed. “Oh great. Of course the bench I choose is cursed. Is that why you're sitting up there?”

“Partly. But it's also a very good place to think in summer cause all the others can't see you so they won't bother you.”

“Good point” Alec admitted. Even though this girl seemed to be at least a little bit crazy he couldn't help but find her sympathetic. 

Alec looked around in the park and realized that a young couple was just walking by. Both of them were giving him weird looks when they passed him. 

“Oh great. They probably thought that I’m talking to the tree” he mumbled as soon as they were gone again.

“Or they just wonder why you're sitting on the cursed bench” the girl in the tree said. “If you don't want people to stare at you, you can come up here as well. There’s enough space for both of us” she offered.

Alec raised his eyebrows. This definitely was the first time that some stranger had offered him to share their place in a tree with them. “Are you serious?” 

“Yes of course.” The girl smiled at him. 

“You're really crazy” Alec said with a chuckle and shook his head but in the end he stood up nevertheless and climbed into the tree. 

“Ouch - fuck” he cursed when a twig was hitting him in the face and the girl giggled. It took him approximately a minute but eventually Alec somehow managed to sit down. 

“Gosh I just hope I won't fall down again. I'm a little bit clumsy sometimes” he confessed, still breathless from climbing.

“Me too actually” the girl said. “Oh I'm Aline by the way. And you are?” 

“Alec.” 

“Cool. Nice to meet you.”

Yeah. This was probably the weirdest first meeting Alec had ever had with somebody. But of course that didn't necessarily had to mean that it was a bad thing. He had no idea what the hell he was doing here but somehow it was quite funny. 

“So … uh … you said you are also here because you need to think?” he tried to start a conversation and to his surprise Aline went with it immediately. 

“Yes I am” she said. “You know there’s this girl in my history class and I think I'm in love with her.” 

“Oh.” He definitely hadn't expected her to tell him such private stuff straight away but apparently she didn't seem to have a problem with him, a complete stranger actually, knowing about her love life. 

“Are you friends with her?” Alec asked.

Aline shook her head. “No. That's exactly the point. We're on the same school for two years now and I still haven't found the courage to talk to her. Normally I'm definitely not shy but she's just so pretty and cute … “ She sighed deeply. “I bet I would act like a complete idiot if I tried to start a conversation with her.” 

“I feel you” Alec said.

“You're also in love with somebody?” Aline asked.

“No but there's this guy … our new neighbour … and I also can't really speak to him without making a complete fool of myself.” 

Wow now he was also talking about his private stuff with a stranger. Normally Alec definitely wasn't like that but somehow he really enjoyed Aline's company. It felt surprisingly good to finally say out loud what was going on in his head the entire time. He had never talked about this with anybody and with her it just felt so easy, probably especially because they didn't know each other. And because he was sure that she would really understand what he was talking about. They were in a pretty similar situation after all.

“Well then” Aline said. “Welcome to the club. I think we should call ourselves ‘A couple of hopeless gays who don't know how to act around attractive people and hide in trees instead of talking to them’.”

Alec laughed loudly. Yes, he definitely liked this girl.   
“Or the A-Team” he suggested. “You know cause both of our names start with an A.” 

“Right. Gosh you're hilarious” Aline giggled.

“My brother always says that my humor is just as bad as my clothing style.” 

“Then your brother is definitely wrong.” 

Alec smiled at her. He felt like he had just made a new best friend. 

POV Magnus 

When Magnus was home again he finally wanted to sit down and relax a bit. It wasn't that late yet but still he was exhausted already. He didn't know why but within the last few weeks he had been tired quite often. Sure, he had worked a lot, helping other downworlders by selling them potions and giving them advice, but this kind of tiredness felt different somehow and no spell (or six cups of very strong coffee) had managed to make it go away. Maybe he should consult Cat and ask her about it. She would probably know what to do. But not today. 

Right now Magnus just wanted to take a bath and maybe read a good book while sitting in the hot water. He hadn't done that for a very long time now and he really missed it. 

He already was on his way to the bathroom when he received a fire message. It was from Lily Chen, the leader of the small vampire clan who lived in the village.

‘There was an accident in the Blackwell house. A little mundane boy is hurt. Could use some help here. Please hurry.’ 

Magnus sighed deeply. He definitely couldn't ignore that message. Not when a innocent life was in danger. Apparently he had to relax another time. 

Without any further ado the warlock opened a portal and stepped through it, imagining the place he wanted to travel to. Just five seconds later he arrived at his destination: the Blackwell house. 

The so called Blackwell house was located on the outskirts of the village. It was a big, historical house in victorian style but nobody lived in there. Well nobody except for Lily and her Clan. The Blackwells, the family who had lived in the house in the 1850s, had been vampires as well so it was a perfect hiding place for Lily and her friends. All the windows were board up and there was no silver anywhere on the property. 

After the Blackwells had left the village other vampires had soon started to use the abandoned house for their purposes. Mundanes weren't interested in buying it cause it looked ‘too scary’ and many of them knew that some strange people had once lived in there so the local vampires had their peace most of the time. Of course it still happened sometimes that somebody entered the house - in most cases curious teenagers with their friends who were looking for a little ‘thrill’ - but usually that wasn't a big problem. The Accords forbit vampires to kill mundanes so they used the power of the Encanto to make them go away. 

The Encanto was an ability that allowed the children of the Night to mesmerize and control others. It was very useful in case somebody had seen them and until now Lily and her clan had never had any serious problems with mundanes. They were quite peaceful most of the time and sticked to the rules of the Nephilim so Magnus was a little bit surprised about what Lily had written. He wondered what had happened and how this little boy was involved in all this. He just hoped that he wasn't injured too badly cause when he died and the Nephilim found out about it Lily would be in some serious trouble even if she wasn't directly responsible for it. Magnus trusted Lily. He knew her for a long time now and he was convinced that she would never attack mundanes like that, especially not defenseless little children. However, somebody from her clan was probably responsible for what ever had happened to the boy and it was her task to keep the other vampires under control - the burden of being a leader.

“Oh finally!” Lily exclaimed as soon as Magnus had entered the house and grabbed him by his sleeve. “There you are.” 

Magnus couldn't fight the urge to roll his eyes. “You called me exactly thirty seconds ago - you know that, right?” he asked while he followed Lily into the living room … well actually it wasn't really a living room since all of the creatures who had ever been in there weren't exactly ‘alive’ but Lily still called it like that. “I portaled here immediately and I just wanted to take a bath so you should be lucky that I'm still wearing my clothes.”

Lily stopped walking for a second and looked at Magnus with a dumbfounded expression on her face. “You would have come here completely naked? Seriously?!” 

Magnus just shrugged in response. 

“Oh what a pity. I really would have loved to see that” a blond vampire said and licked her lips. The look she was giving him should probably be seductive but it was rather disturbing for Magnus. 

“Hey, Beth, take a break! This is not the right time to hit on other people” Lily scolded the young woman. “This is a very serious situation!” 

The blond vampire pouted. “Sorry but I just couldn't help it” she said. “I mean look at him! He's so yummy. I bet he tastes very good …” 

“Just ignore her, Magnus!” Lily said. “She doesn't know how to behave. I'm going to spank her later.” 

“Oh really?” Beth smirked. 

“I'm not sure if you are really punishing her with that” Magnus said. “So where’s the boy?” 

“Over there” Lily said and lead Magnus into the next room. “You stay here” she added when Beth tried to follow them and closed the door right in front of her face. 

Magnus spotted the boy immediately. He was lying on a red sofa at the other end of the room and two male vampires were standing around him. He looked concerningly pale and he was bleeding.

Immediately Magnus hurried to him and the two vampires stepped aside. 

“We haven't touched him just like you said” one of them said to Lily. “But it doesn't look good.” 

Magnus could only agree with that. The poor boy looked horrible. His eyes were closed and his face was covered in sweat. He was fifteen, maybe sixteen years old. Even though Magnus didn't know him his heart arched seeing him like that. His dark, curly hair sticked to his forehead and he was barely breathing.

“What happened? What did you do to this poor little boy?” he asked, trying to sound calm.

“John” Lily said cooly and looked at one of the two vampires. “I think you should tell him. It's your fault after all.” 

“You did that to him?” Magnus asked angrily. “Why?” 

“Hey it was self defense, okay? This stupid mundane boy attacked me” the vampire growled and pointed at a wooden stake which was lying on the floor. 

Magnus frowned. “So he knew that you are vampires and that you live here?” 

“Apparently yes … he was totally crazy this little idiot. Yelled something about me having killed his little brother” John said annoyed. “And then he tried to stab me.” 

“Did you kill his brother?” Magnus asked sharply.

“No I didn't” John hissed angrily. “Killing mundanes is against the accords I know that. I'm not stupid.”   
Magnus looked to Lily, waiting for what she had to say about this. She knew her people and he trusted her judgement.

“I think he says the truth” Lily said after a few seconds of silence. “We don't attack mundanes. We live from animal blood or from donors who give their blood voluntarily. His brother has probably been killed by another vampire. A loner maybe or a fledgling. Somebody who isn't in control of his impulses.” 

“So what about the boy?” John asked impatiently. “Is he going to make it?” Magnus knew that he just asked because he was afraid to be punished by the clave. 

He looked at the boy and tried to heal him with his magic but it didn't work. Magnus cursed silently. “It isn't working.” 

“So what?” 

“Well he's going to die - that's what” Magnus hissed. “You have bitten him so I guess we can just decide between laying him to rest or to let him turn into a vampire.” 

Lily bit her lip. “What would you choose?” she asked. 

“Well bringing him back obviously or you're going to get into some serious trouble here” Magnus said. “The clave definitely wouldn't be happy about finding the corpse of an innocent mundane murdered by vampires. No matter how it happened and if you are sorry or not.” 

“Then let's bring him to the cemetery” Lily said. “But we have to wait until the sun is down entirely. I want to come with you. There has to be a vampire around when he awakes to take care of him and he is going to need blood. Lots of blood. John you go and get it. Now.” John didn't look exactly happy about his job but he obeyed the order without complaining. 

Magnus carefully laid his hand on the boys throat and gulped when he felt that he wasn't breathing any longer. He was dead. For the moment. This poor little child. Magnus felt horrible. He just hoped that it was the right decision to bring him back. 

“I'm so sorry that this happened to you” he said quietly and stroked the boys cold cheek. “You deserved better. I hope you're not angry with me but I just have to bring you back.” 

This gaze fell down on the boys throat and he saw that he was wearing a necklace with a cross, a symbol for his religion. He smiled sadly. 

“Unfortunately you aren't going to be able to wear that any longer.” 

Vampires couldn't bear the contact with holy symbols - it would burn their skin and hurt them very bad - but only if it was a symbol that had had great importance to them during their lifetime. A non-christian vampire for example could still touch a cross in this ‘after-life’ cause he had never believed in their god anyways. To this boy however his religion was obviously very important so he wouldn't be able to wear his necklace any longer when he was a vampire.

“I'm so sorry” Magnus said again but it didn't make him feel any better. He just hoped that he was doing the right thing ...


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. I'm sorry for the long wait but I'm finally done with this chapter. I hope you haven't lost interest in this story yet. There might still be some mistakes in there but I'm going to correct them soon

POV Alec   
Alec and Aline talked for almost two hours until Alec realized that it was quite late already. It was starting to get dark outside and when he checked his smartphone he saw that Izzy had been writing him several messages over the last few minutes.

‘Hey, Alec where are you? I thought you just wanted to go for a walk.’

‘Hey that's not funny you've been gone for over two hours now!! Please answer me!’ 

‘Alexander Gideon Lightwood you better come home right now mom is starting to get angry!’ 

Also she had tried to call him three times but he had silenced his phone so he didn't realize.

“Oh damn it!” he cursed and almost fell off the tree. “I have to go home. My family is already wondering where I am.” 

“Oh right. Gosh I can't believe that it's so late already” Aline said. “Time passed very quickly.”   
She could say that again.

They quickly climbed out of the tree and Alec was proud that he actually managed to do so without seriously hurting himself.

“So we're probably going to see each other the day after tomorrow right?” 

“What? Really? Where?” Alec asked rattled.

“Uh … school” Aline said with a little laugh.

“Oh right.” He really should have thought of that. 

“Yeah we're gonna see each other then.”

“I'm looking forward to it” Aline said with a smile. “And now you better hurry before you get into trouble.” That Alec didn't need to be told twice.

‘Sorry Izzy I didn't see your messages earlier. Forgot to check time. I'm on my way now’ he texted while he was walking and almost ran into a lamppost because he was so concentrated on his phone. He just hoped that Aline had not seen that but when he looked back over his shoulder she was already gone. 

Since he hadn't been that far away from their new house anyway it didn't take him long to go back. He arrived at the front door within five minutes and was greeted by Maryse who was already waiting for him, standing in the doorframe with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

“Where have you been?” she asked strictly. “We were worried about you.” 

Alec resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “I was just taking a little walk, exploring the vicinity. There’s a park not even five minutes away from here and I stayed there for a while. Nothing to be worried about.” 

“You could have told me” Maryse said, still sounding a little bit angry. “Especially when you were going to come back again.” Alec frowned in confusion. He didn't really understand why his mother was being so dramatic about this. He was seventeen for god's sake and not a toddler. Also this wasn't exactly a dangerous place or something like that. And he had never done something stupid or irresponsible before. He always followed the rules so he didn't get why his mother was suddenly behaving like he was a criminal. 

“Yeah sorry I forgot” Alec lied, not able to completely suppress the slightly annoyed undertone in his voice. “Can I come in now?” 

Maryse stepped aside and let him enter. “Sorry that I was being so harsh but please tell me where you go the next time” she said and closed the door behind him.

“Okay, okay” Alec mumbled and went upstairs where his siblings were all waiting for him in the hallway. 

“There you are. Are you in trouble?” Jace asked immediately.

“No not really. But mom totally overreacted” Alec answered.

“I told her that you were going to come back soon but she didn't believe me” Izzy said and rolled her eyes. “I think we can all agree that she is generally behaving very strange at the moment.” 

“Definitely.” Jace crossed his arms in front of his chest and casually leaned against the wall. “By the way: why do you have twigs in your hair?” he asked amused.

“Maybe a bird couple saw it and thought it was a good place to build a nest” Izzy said with a giggle. 

“Very funny” said Alec while he was running his fingers through his hair, trying to remove what didn't belong there. 

“What?” Izzy defended herself. “If you would comb your hair … “ 

“I do comb my hair” Alec interrupted her. 

Jace gave a snort of incredulity. “Really? When?”

“You don't even have a hairbrush” Max added.

“Very helpful. Thanks a lot for your input here, Max” Alec said, still fighting with one of the twigs which was tangled up in his hair. Alec had no clue how this could possibly have happened but he just couldn't get it out.

“Having trouble?” Jace asked with a teasing grin.

“Oh no why would you think that? I just love pulling my hair” Alec answered sarcastically.

“Wait I'm going to help you.” 

“Thank you, Izzy. That's really … OUCH!! WHAT THE FUCK IZ?! ARE YOU INSANE?” Alec yelled in pain. His sister had just violently ripped out an entire tuft of his hair. 

“What?” she asked innocently and shrugged, while Max and Jace were laughing their asses off. “You wanted it gone and it's gone. Problem solved” Izzy said and gave the twig to Alec.

“Yeah but like THAT I also could have done it myself.” 

“Really?” Izzy looked at him doubtfully. “Didn't seem like it.” 

“You could have warned me at least” Alec grumbled and tried to ignore his stupid brothers who were still laughing. “I'm going to take a shower now.” 

“Yeah you should really do that. Maybe you are also going to find some feathers in your hair” Jace giggled.

Alec looked at him angrily and walked away. 

\---------------------

The next day passed rather quickly and before he knew it the first day of school was already there.   
It was six in the morning when Alec entered the kitchen. He was tired as fuck and just wanted to go back to sleep again but of course he couldn't do that. 

Yesterday had been very busy because they had been working on the house twenty four seven and everybody was still exhausted from all the physical activity. Normally it waa just Alec who wasn't a morning person but today they were all tired. Max looked like he was about to fall asleep with his face in his cereal and Izzy yawned the entire time. Also Jace had not styled his hair properly and that said more than a thousand words. Actually Alec couldn't believe that he really wanted to leave the house like that but he didn't seem to give a fuck.

“Max raise your head a bit your hair is in the milk” Maryse said after she had greeted Alec.

“Oh.” Max sighed. He was growing his hair out and things like that happened to him quite often recently. Alec wanted to get himself a cup of coffee before also sitting down at the table but then he realized that they didn't have a coffee machine yet. 

“Oh no” he groaned. That would mean he would be in a bad mood the entire morning. Great.

“What’s the matter?” Maryse asked.

“There’s no coffee.” 

“Yeah right. It's horrible” Izzy agreed with him.

Alec got himself a glass of milk instead and sat down next to Jace, who was eating scrambled eggs like he had been starving for over a week. Normally he would have made a witty comment about that but at the moment Alec was way too tired to think of something. 

He ate some cereal and tried his best to keep his eyes open, silently hoping that they would at least sell coffee in the school cafeteria because otherwise he probably wouldn't be able to pay attention to the lesson and he really didn't want to make a bad first expression … 

POV Magnus   
It was very early in the morning and still dark outside the window when Magnus was woken up by the sound of his doorbell ringing.

“What on earth … ?” he mumbled sleepily and pulled his blanket over his head, hoping that he had just imagined the noise but when he didn't stand up after two minutes it came again.

Someone had to be kidding him!

Magnus pushed the blanket away and took a quick look at the alarm clock on his bedside table. It was five o'clock. It was fucking five o'clock in the morning. Who on earth would want something from him at this time? Apparently somebody who didn't know him cause everybody who knew Magnus wouldn't dare to do such a thing.

Magnus toyed with the idea of just ignoring the noise and stay in bed for at least another hour but unfortunately the fucking idiot in front of his door was very stubborn. 

Just three minutes later he couldn't take it any longer and rolled out of his bed.

“Whoever you are I'm going to punch you into the face” he hissed quietly while he put on his dressing gown. Angrily he stomped down the stairs and teared open the door.

“Who dares to disturb the former High Warlock of Brooklyn?” he growled. “I swear I'm going to turn you into a toa- Ragnor? What the hell?!!” 

Magnus couldn't believe this. What the hell was going on here?

He stared at the man in front of his door with a confused expression on his face and waited for an explanation. Then his gaze fell down and he saw that his friend was carrying two big suitcases.   
Oh no. This had to be a freaking nightmare.

“Why are you standing in front of my door in the middle of the night with a bunch of luggage?” he asked alarmed and hoped that his apprehension would turn out wrong even though he highly doubted it. He expected the worst. 

“Well what does it look like?” Ragnor asked, sounding annoyed. “I'm going to move in with you.” 

Yep. This definitely was a nightmare. 

Magnus's jaw dropped and he was speechless. He didn't even protest when his friend entered the house and closed the door behind him. 

“Don't look at me like that” Ragnor said and rolled his eyes. “This wasn't my idea.”

Slowly Magnus's brain started working again. “You are kidding me, right?” he asked. “You're trying to prank me.”

Ragnor laughed but it didn't sound very amused. “I wish I was, believe me” he said. “I'm also not very happy about this but I do not have a choice.”

“Why not?” Magnus asked, almost desperately. His life was already complicated enough at the moment and he was sure that Ragnor moving in with him would just make things even worse. 

Yes, Ragnor was his friend - kind of - but still he was one of the most exhausting persons to be around. He was one of those people you saw once in a year and then you already had enough of them for the next two centuries. He was one of those people who managed to give Magnus a headache by their mere presence and was sure that Ragnor felt the same about him so he really didn't understand why he wanted to do this. It was obvious that this was a very, very bad idea.

“Because if I'm not doing it your mother is going to kill me and she's one of the most intimidating persons I ever came across” Ragnor said.

Magnus snorted. Intimidating definitely was the right word here. 

“You can say that again” he agreed and started walking towards the living room but then he suddenly realized what else his friend had been saying about his mother before that. He stopped abruptly so that Ragnor - who had been following him - almost bumped into him from behind. 

“Wait a second - you mean my mother is behind this? She asked you to move in with me?!”   
Magnus had turned around and was now staring at his friend with a dumbfounded expression on his face. 

Ragnor rolled his eyes. “You're really quick today aren't you?” he asked sarcastically. 

“It's five in the morning so excuse me for not being at my best” Magnus defended himself sharply.

“Also your mother didn't exactly ask” Ragnor continued on, ignoring his friends interjection. “It's not like I could have said something against it.”

“But why would she do that?”

Ragnor threw his hands up in frustration. “I don’t know, okay? She just said that she was worried about you. That you weren't taking care of yourself and that you were working too much or something like that. I guess she wants me to keep an eye on you.”

Magnus couldn't help but laugh. This was ridiculous. “She sends you to help me?”

“Well apparently” Ragnor grumbled. “Catarina is way too busy with her own life and I think that my phone number was the only other one your mother had. I really regret having bought one of these annoying mundane smartphones now.”

“I also regret having persuaded you to buy one in the first place” Magnus sighed. 

He still remembered the first few weeks after his friend had just gotten his new phone. He had always spammed him with random emojis 24/7 just to go on his nerves. At least he didn't do that anymore.

“Mother really must have lost her mind. This is never going to work out.”

“That's exactly what I tried to tell her but she wouldn't listen. She is convinced that we would be perfect for helping each other. So if you do not want to call her and tell her that she's crazy I guess we have to do this … I mean you know that she's going to find out immediately if we don't. She's omniscient.” 

Unfortunately Ragnor was right about that as well. Magnus groaned in annoyance and massaged his temples.

“You know I've always hated monday mornings but this is a whole new level” he complained.

“I definitely agree with you” Ragnor said.

\---------------------------------------

About one hour later Magnus was in the kitchen, baking pancakes. Well at least he tried to do so but it was very hard for him to concentrate on what he was doing with Ragnor looking over his shoulder the entire time. Also he was constantly criticising every little thing that he was doing. 

“Are you sure you are doing this right?” he asked for the third time now and Magnus felt the burning wish to just turn him into a toad like he had threatened to do when he had opened the door for him. Or - even better - a mouse. He could turn him into a mouse and let Chairman, Church and Sparkles play with him a little bit …

This thought actually made him grin.

“You know that you could also just use your magic to do this, right? It would save us a lot of time.”

“Sometimes I just prefer doing things the mundane way” Magnus said and surprisingly managed to sound relatively calm. Maybe it was because the picture of the mouse was still inside his head. Ragnor squeking in panic while he was running away from his cats definitely was a very amusing thought, especially since he always bragged that they would like him better than Magnus.

“Tssz.” Ragnor shook his head. “You have always been very weird my friend.” 

“I take this as a compliment” Magnus said.

“Of course you do.” Ragnor chuckled and sat down at the kitchen table.

“Being weird is one of the things I like most about myself” Magnus said truthfully and finished cooking. Ragnor set the table (of course he didn't stand up for this but used his magic instead) and then they were having breakfast together. 

Magnus was still tired but after he had taken a shower he felt a little bit better than before. Ragnor’s suitcases were now standing inside the guest room and it almost seemed like he was really going to move in. At least for now. They were just going to do this until Magnus had found some time to talk to his mother and convince her that he didn't need a babysitter. He was 400 years old for fucks sake. He didn't need anybody to look after him, especially not Ragnor.

“Well then I have to go” Magnus said eventually and stood up. “Please promise me that you won't blow up my house while I’m gone.”

Ragnor looked confused. “Where do you have to go?” 

Magnus resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “To school. I work in the library, remember?” 

“Oh, right. Well then, have fun I guess.” 

“I will” Magnus said and walked to the door. He was already halfway outside when suddenly a brilliant idea came to him and a big grin spread on his face.

“Oh and Ragnor” he shouted over his shoulder. “Since you are here to help me I want you to cook dinner for me while I'm gone and you could also take care of my dirty clothes. Thanks a lot!” 

Without waiting for an answer he left the house and closed the door behind him. 

He walked down the path that led to the street and silently counted how many seconds it would take Ragnor to tear the door open again. It weren't even five.

“I WILL NOT WASH YOUR DIRTY UNDERWEAR BANE!” he yelled loudly, clearly not giving a fuck that there were people walking by who could hear him. “AND STOP GRINNING LIKE THAT!!” 

“LOVE YOU TOO HONEY” Magnus replied just as loud and threw his friend a kiss before he turned around again and continued his way. The last thing he could see from the corner of his eye was Ragnors angry face.

He smiled satisfied and chuckled. Now he definitely felt better.


	7. Chapter 7

Pov Alec   
Alec was a little bit nervous when he, Izzy and Jace eventually entered the school building together. He immediately started looking for Aline but he couldn't find her in the crowd of students who were running through the corridors. Maybe she was already inside one of the classrooms. Or he just couldn't see her because she was too small compared to the others. 

“Gosh I feel like everybody is staring at us” Izzy whispered and Alec could only agree with her. It wasn't as bad as he had imagined it to be but there definitely were some people looking at them curiously. He tried his best to ignore them and followed his siblings through the corridor. They had no idea where exactly they had to go but Alec guessed that it wouldn't be that hard to find the right class rooms. After all this school was way smaller than the one they had been going to before and he didn't think that it was even possible to get lost here. 

“Well I definitely can't blame them for staring at me” Jace said with a confident smirk on his face and winked at a dark haired girl who was just passing them. She blushed and quickly walked away but not without giving Jace a shy smile before she did so.

Alec rolled his eyes and shook his head about his brothers behaviour. Sometimes Jace could be very narcissistic and it didn't exactly help that he always seemed to be successful when it came to hitting on girls. ‘Well every time except one’ Alec thought with a little grin on his face when he suddenly spotted the red haired girl from the coffee shop standing in the middle of the corridor just a few meters away from them. He remembered how awkward Jace had been around her two days ago and he still found it very amusing if he was being honest.

“Oh Jace look who's over there” he couldn't help but tease his brother a little bit, nodding into the direction the girl was standing. Jace followed his gaze and froze in the middle of the movement when he saw her. 

“Oh fuck” he mumbled. “What the hell is she doing here?”

“It's just a guess and I might put my head above the parapet by saying this but I think she goes to school here” Izzy said, clearly amused as well.

Alec giggled but Jace didn't even pay attention to them and kept staring at the girl from the coffee shop instead.

“I think he's having a stroke or something like that” Alec whispered and Izzy shook her head. 

“Unbelievable” she said quietly. “It's like he's hypnotized or something.” 

“I am not” Jace said. “I just - I didn't expect her to be here that's all.”

“But I guess you're very happy about seeing her again huh?” Izzy teased him. 

Jace shook his head. “No actually I’m not.” 

“C’mon. We know that you find her interesting” Alec said even though he couldn't understand why. Well … actually he had never really understood what Jace found attractive about girls in the first place. 

“No … I mean yes I do but have you seen my hair? I look horrible.” 

Izzy snorted and Alec laughed but then he saw the serious expression on his brothers face and he stared at him instead.

“Are you kidding me?” he asked incredulously. “Not even two minutes ago you were hitting on this girl and acted like you were the most irresistible person alive and now you think you look horrible?”

“Shut up” Jace growled. “I just don’t want to make a fool of myself again … maybe we should just go somewhere else so she isn't going to see us.”

He wanted to turn around but it was too late. The girl had already spotted them and smiled friendly.   
Jace stared at her, until Izzy elbowed him. 

“Don't stare at her like that you look like a creep” she whispered. “Just go over and say hello. We're going to come with you, right Alec?” 

“Uh yeah, sure.” 

\---------------------------

“I can't believe this really happened to me.” 

It was about half an hour later and Jace and Alec were sitting inside the classroom together. The first lesson - maths - had already started a few minutes ago but of course that didn't stop Jace from talking. It was the first time that they were sitting next to each other in class and Alec already was lowkey annoyed about his brother. He was trying to pay attention to what the teacher was saying but Jace seemed to have other plans. His conversation with the Red Head had not been going like he wanted and now he was whining about it constantly, completely ignoring the fact that the teacher was trying to hold a lesson and probably wanted them to pay attention to her.  
“Really this can't be normal” he kept mumbling. “Maybe it was because of my hair …” 

Alec rolled his eyes. “What can't be normal? That a girl doesn't want to jump you right away?” he asked. “I hate to bring it to you but not everybody thinks that you're totally irresistible. And that has nothing to do with your hair.” 

“But most people do.”

Alec sighed but then he chuckled. Quite ironic that for once Jace actually seemed to have serious interest in a girl and then she didn't react to his flirting attempts.

“Shut up. That's not funny. I'm totally serious about this” Jace said quietly.

“Come on usually you get every girl you want so why are you making such a drama about Carly?” Alec whispered back and hoped that the teacher wouldn't notice that they weren't paying attention because he really didn't want to get into trouble, especially not on his very first day here. 

“Her name is Clary” Jace corrected him immediately.

“Whatever” Alec said unimpressed and copied the problem they were supposed to solve from the blackboard. He had never been exactly good at remembering names.

“I don't know why but she's just so … interesting.”

Alec stopped writing and raised his eyebrows. Interesting? How could Jace find her that interesting if he didn't know anything about her and had only talked with her twice for a few minutes?

‘But isn't it the same with you and Magnus though?’ a voice inside his head said and Alec bit his lip. He definitely couldn't argue about that. He didn't know what exactly was going on and why he found their new neighbour so damn fascinating but it was the truth and he couldn't do anything about it. Maybe Jace felt the same about Car - no Clary. 

Alec cleared his throat and hastily shoved the thoughts about Magnus out of his head again. 

“Well seems like this time you actually have to take some effort to conquer her just like other human beings usually do.”

“You mean everybody except you” Jace said. “I’ve never seen you hitting on any girl in my entire life.”  
Alec shrugged. “I guess that's just not my style” he mumbled and looked at his hands. 

“And how are you planning on finding a girlfriend then?” Jace asked.

Sometimes questions like these could be really annoying. Everybody always asked Alec why he hadn't had a girlfriend yet and stuff like that and he was so sick of it by now. He especially hated the looks the others were giving him then - looks that made him feel as if there was something wrong with him, as if he was a freak just because he hadn't been in a relationship yet and had less experience than most other people in his age. 

With Jace it wasn't that bad because Alec knew that he was just teasing him and didn't really mean it serious but it was way more annoying with his mother. She was probably just concerned about him and his future and didn't want him to be alone in his later life but it really didn't help Alec that she always looked at him as if she was feeling so incredibly sorry for him for not having any love interest. He didn't need her pity. He didn't need any pity.

“I thought this was about you” he tried to shift the focus of their conversation on his brother again. He really wasn't in the mood to discuss his own love life right now.

“Right” Jace said and immediately dropped the topic again. Alec wasn't exactly sure whether his brother had actually realized that he didn't want to talk about it (he rather doubted it) or if he just loved talking about himself more (that was definitely more likely) but either way he was glad that the focus wasn't on him any longer. 

“So what do you think I should do? About Clary?” 

Alec shrugged. “I don't know. Maybe just try to become friends with her first and don't start hitting on her straight away. That might scare her off.”

Jace looked impressed. “Wow” he said, sounding surprised. “I think you're right. I can't believe that you of all people just gave me advice about girls.” 

He laughed and Alec chuckled as well. “Yeah me neither.” 

Pov Magnus   
He heard how Ragnor slammed the door shut behind his back and rolled his eyes. Was he trying to destroy his house now? Magnus sighed deeply. This whole ‘living together thing’ surely wouldn't end well - even if it was just temporarily. He guessed that by the end of the week they probably would have killed each other. Or maybe even before that.

Magnus shook his head. It was a beautiful morning - very pleasant temperatures and a nearly cloudless sky - and he really wanted to enjoy this without constantly thinking about his problems. He could deal with that when he came home again.

Magnus walked on and a few minutes later he actually started to calm down and relax. He had always enjoyed taking walks - that's why he was one of the very few people here who didn't own a car. The school, the grocery store and the coffee shop he frequented weren't far away from his house and if he wanted to travel over bigger distances he just used a portal. Also he didn't really know how to drive a car. He had learned it of course but that had been ages ago.

Magnus still remembered how people had started using cars at the beginning of the 20th century. Together with Ragnor he had also witnessed the very first american automobile race back in 1895 - the Chicago Times-Herald race. 

As a warlock Ragnor had never been very impressed by mundane things and machines but for some reason cars had managed to do so. It had been Magnus and his insatiable curiosity who had urged his grumpy friend to go see the race with him in the first place but he was pretty sure that Ragnor had been more fascinated by this new invention than he would ever admit. As soon as it was possible he had even ‘bought’ his own car. “Just for fun” he had said, trying to play it down but Magnus knew that was secretly pretty obsessed with this ‘weird mundane intention’. 

Since Magnus had always been very eager to try new things he also tried driving a car and even though he had really enjoyed it back then he didn't want to do it any longer. 

Today there was way too much traffic on the streets - maybe not here in the village but he had seen it every day when he had still been living in his apartment in New York - and the whole feeling of driving just wasn't as special any longer as it had been back then. It was rather stressful now and Magnus really didn't have the nerve for that. 

Even though the fresh air was helping him feeling a little bit less tired Magnus still stopped at the coffee shop to pick up his usual order. 

When he eventually arrived in front of the school about five minutes later Aline was already waiting for him. Aline Penhallow was a seventeen year old student and a good friend of him. When she had a break she and Magnus often had lunch together. 

Sometimes Biscuit and Sheldon, who were one year younger than she was, also joined them. Their real names actually were Clary and Simon but Magnus loved giving his friends nicknames so he kept calling them by it. Clary didn't really mind because she liked the nickname Magnus had given to her but Simon was lowkey annoyed about it most of the time because he thought that Magnus just couldn't remember his real name. It was quite funny actually, teasing him like that. Magnus couldn't argue that he really enjoyed it.

“Magnus Bane! There you are!” Aline exclaimed when she saw him and gave him a strict look, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “You owe me an explanation. Now.”

Magnus frowned in confusion. This definitely wasn't how he was normally greeted by her. Had he done something wrong? He had no idea what was going on. “What are you talking about?”

“Why didn't you tell me that you have a boyfriend? After such a long time? I mean … what happened? I thought you didn't want to date anybody … ” 

Magnus's frown deepened. “Yes and I still do. Who told you this?” he asked. 

“Nobody told me directly but some of my classmates saw that there was another man at the door when you left the house this morning” Aline said, still sounding reproachful. “Everybody is talking about it already.”

Magnus choked and almost dropped his coffee. “Wait what?!”

So there really was a rumor going around that he and - gosh he couldn't even say it inside his head. That he and his new roommate were a couple?? And that after what - three hours already? Suddenly Magnus felt very sick. “Oh my god please tell me you're kidding!”

“I'm not. So what’s going on there?” Now Aline seemed to be confused as well. “Did they just make this up?” 

“Yes … I mean no.” Magnus sighed and rubbed his temples. This was like the worst morning ever. “There really was another man with me this morning but he's not my boyfriend! And I'm DEFINITELY not interested in him in that way.” 

Urgh. The mere thought made Magnus shiver in horror.

Aline raised her eyebrows, not looking completely convinced yet. “Really?” she asked. “They said you called him honey.”

“Yes but just to annoy him.” Magnus really hated himself right now. Why couldn't he just keep his mouth shut or once? No matter how funny it had been to tease Ragnor - in this village you had to be very careful with what you were saying because rumors always tended to spread like wildfire. Magnus guessed that by the end of the day the whole school would think that he and Ragnor were a thing … it was a nightmare. And it was his fault. 

“He's actually a friend of mine … or something like that. Sometimes I just want to strangle him if I'm being honest. We have a very weird relationship I guess but we're definitely NOT a couple. He's just kinda forced to live with me for a few days and it's absolutely horrible” he tried to explain the situation. “And if he hears about this rumor he's probably going to kill himself.”

Aline laughed incredulously. “Don't you think you're exaggerating now?”

Magnus shook his head. “No I'm not, believe me. He's quite a drama queen.”

“Okay. Then I guess we should spread the news that you're still single” Aline said and winked. 

“Yeah probably. I really don't want Ragnor to hear about this.”

In that moment the school bell rang and Aline winced. “Oh damn it! I didn't realize it was that late already” she cursed. “I have to go. See you later Mags.” 

She hugged him quickly and then stormed off into the school building. Magnus looked after her with a smile on his face and shook his head. Aline definitely was a much more pleasant person to be around than Ragnor.

Magnus finished his coffee and then entered the school building as well. Even though the first lesson had already started there still were some students on the corridors. He passed them and walked up the stairs to the second floor. The library was at the end of the hallway.

When he opened the door Magnus was surprised because instead of Lydia - the woman he usually worked with - there was a guy standing in front of him. He was quite decent looking and had slightly tousled brown hair. 

“Hey you have to be Magnus right?” he said and smiled at him. “Lydia told me everything about you.” 

“Uh … yes I am” Magnus said, slightly confused and shook the strangers hand. “And you are?” 

“I'm Marc, a good friend of Lydia. I'm also going to help out here for the next few weeks. Lydia is sick today but she's going to come back soon.” 

“Oh okay.” 

“So what am I supposed to do now? How exactly do you work here?” Mark asked with a grin on his face and Magnus realized that his eyes were quickly scanning his body while he was talking. 

Interesting. 

But maybe he was reading too much into this. This didn't necessarily have to mean anything. 

“Don't worry I'm going to show you” Magnus said and smiled.


	8. Chapter 8

Pov Alec

“So please do the exercises on page 10 for homework” the teacher ended the lesson and all students groaned in annoyance. Well everybody except Alec but he also wasn't very happy about this. He didn't mind doing homework at all but it was the first day after the holidays and he definitely needed some more time to get back into his working schedule. 

“So much homework after the first lesson? That's just cruel” Jace complained loudly while the other students around them started to leave the classroom. He looked over at Alec. “Don't you want to do mine as well?” 

Alec snorted. Jace had to be kidding him! “Definitely not” he said and put his books into his bag.

“But I thought you love doing homework.”

“That's true but I'm not your bitch” Alec replied, very pleased with himself. 

“Whow okay okay” Jace raised his hands and laughed. “I was just joking man.” 

Alec raised his eyebrows. He didn't believe him for one second. “Yeah sure” he said but then he laughed as well. 

Jace wrapped one arm around his shoulder and they walked out of the room, both chuckling.

On the corridor Izzy was already waiting for them. Clary was standing next to her and it seemed like the two of them already came along pretty well. They both were one class level under them because they were younger than Jace and Alec who were approximately the same age. Alec still was a few month older though and he never got tired to remind Jace of it. Even though he was adopted he was like a real brother to Alec and he also loved teasing him like one.

“Oh hey guys. There you are” Izzy greeted them. 

“How was your first lesson?” Clary asked. 

“I didn't really pay attention to be honest. All I know is that we have way too much homework already. That Mr. Garroway dude we just had in our last lesson really sucks.” 

Jace laughed but Clary didn't look very amused.  
“He's my stepfather.” 

Jace stopped laughing immediately and looked like he was about to have a stroke. His facial expression was actually quite funny but Alec managed not to laugh about it. With Clary around his brother apparently tended to put his foot in his mouth quite a lot. 

“Oh … uh … I'm so sorry … I didn't know …” 

Jace obviously didn't know what to say and Alec just started to feel very sorry for him when Clary suddenly started laughing.

“Hey I'm just kidding” she said.

“Really?” Jace asked warily but he already looked a lot calmer now. 

“Yes, really. I mean Luke really is my stepfather - or at least he's going to be very soon - but I'm not upset about what you said. I actually understand what you mean … I’ve heard from many students that he always gives a lot of homework so it's not very surprising that people can't stand him sometimes.”

“I’m still sorry for saying that he sucks. He's a very good teacher actually” Jace said. 

Alec raised his eyebrows but he didn't say anything. 

“It's okay really. You don't need to apologize for that” Clary said. “But if you feel the urge to make it up to me you could join me for lunch maybe. I have a theater play in a few weeks and I need somebody who can go through my lines with me after I finished eating.”

Jace seemed to be pretty surprised about the invitation but he nodded anyways. “Uh yeah sure. Why not?” he said with a smile.

“Great. Do you want to join us too?” Clary looked at Alec and Izzy.

“Uh, no thank you” Izzy declined friendly before Alec had the chance to say something. “Maybe next time. Alec and I have something important to talk about.”

“Okay.” Clary smiled. “Then I'm gonna see you later.” 

“Yes. See you after lunch” Izzy said and Clary and Jace walked away together. 

“Okay so what do we have to talk about now?” Alec asked as soon as they were out of sight. 

Izzy rolled her eyes. “Nothing of course. I just said that because I wanted to give Jace the opportunity to be alone with her … you understand?”

“Oh yeah right.” Alec blushed slightly. Now that Izzy said it it was really obvious. He couldn't believe that he hadn't understood it straight away. “That makes sense I guess.” 

Izzy shook her head and laughed. “You're a little bit slowly today aren't you?” 

Alec pouted but he couldn't argue that his sister was right. He didn't know why but his thoughts were running wild the entire time today and he found it very hard to concentrate. 

“So and what are we going to do now?” Izzy asked when suddenly a nerdy looking guy with brown hair and black glasses bumped into her and made her drop her books. 

“Oh my god I'm so sorry” he said in a high pitched voice and looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown in the middle of the corridor.

“No problem” Izzy said calmly and kneeled down in order to pick her stuff up from the floor again but apparently the nervous guy with the glasses had had a similar idea and bend forward at the very same time so that their heads bumped together.

“Ouch” they both said and Alec couldn't suppress a laugh. This was absolutely hilarious.  
Glasses blushed and pulled his head back again, hastily stammering an apology while Izzy grabbed her books and tried to calm him down.

“Hey, relax. I'm okay there's no need to worry” she said and stood up again. 

“Are you sure?” Glasses asked anxiously. 

“Yes I am - Alec stop laughing or I'm going to come over and kick your ass.” 

Glasses looked scared off by the harsh tone of her voice but Alec wasn't very impressed by his sisters threat. After all he had lived together with her his whole life. He knew that in reality she wasn't quite as scary as she always wanted to make people believe she was. However it wasn't very wise to underestimate her either cause she definitely would be able to kick Alec’s and almost every other boys ass if she really wanted to.

“Awww come on Iz” Alec said teasingly. “I know exactly that you would never do that to your big brother.” 

“I wouldn't be too sure about that.”   
“You know she seems really intimidating but she's actually a real big softie” he let Glasses know. 

“I'm going to kill you. Seriously” Izzy growled.

“I love you too” Alec grinned at his sister and even though she rolled her eyes at first she eventually gave in and grinned back, wordlessly shaking her head. 

“So … uh … I guess you two are new here, right?” Glasses awkwardly tried to start a conversation. He still seemed to be nervous for some reason and Alec slowly started to think that maybe it was just a fixed part of his personality.

Izzy nodded. “Yes, we just moved here from New York.” She pointed at Alec. “That 6’3 feet tall idiot over there is my annoying brother Alec and I'm Isabelle.” She stretched out her hand and smiled at the other boy. “Most people do call me Izzy though.” 

“Uh … I'm Lewis. Simon Lewis. Two first names … am I still talking?” the nervous guy with the glasses introduced himself as well after he had stared at Izzy for a few seconds and looked slightly embarrassed when he eventually shook her hand. 

Izzy laughed. “Yes you are but it's okay.” 

“Really? Most people are annoyed by me after a few seconds already” Simon said. “I talk a little bit too much I guess but I just can't help it. Clary always says that -” 

“Oh you are friends with Clary?” Izzy interrupted him. 

“Best friends actually. We basically grew up together. Do you know her?” 

“Yes we met her in the coffee shop on our first day here. And I had my first courses together with her. She's really nice” Izzy said. 

Simon smiled. “Yes she's the best.” 

“She is in the cafeteria having lunch with our brother at the moment. Just in case you are looking for her” Alec informed the other boy.

Simon looked at him in surprise. Apparently he had already forgotten that he was still here as well. Alec couldn't really blame him though - things like that happened to him quite often. He was just too silent most of the time so people tended to forget about his presence rather fast.

“Oh okay. No I don't want to disturb them then” Simon said awkwardly.

“So if you have nothing else to do you could maybe show us around a bit” Izzy suggested and it almost sounded like she was flirting with the other boy.   
Alec didn't really know what to think about that if he was being honest. 

Simon seemed to be confused as well but in rather good way. “What?! Are you serious?” he asked incredulously and the way he was staring at Izzy showed that it definitely didn't happen very often that girls like her payed attention to him. 

Izzy just shrugged. “Yes of course” she said friendly. “You could show us where all the important rooms are. And tell us about the students, you know … who's an asshole, who's still single … you look like a person who knows about that.”

Oh so that's where she was coming from. Now this slowly started to make some more sense.

“Oh okay. Sure” Simon said and beamed, apparently very proud of the task Izzy had given him. “So that blue haired guy over there is Matt. He's quite okay actually but a absolute disaster when it comes to dating. When he had a date with Heidi McKenzie he was so nervous that he threw up on her new dress so I wouldn't advise either of you to go out with him. Oh and he's in my band by the way.” 

“You have a band?” Izzy asked immediately. Alec wasn't sure whether the interest in her voice was real or if she was just trying to be friendly.

“Yes. We do not have a good name yet but we already had a gig here at the school.”

“Oh that's cool” Izzy said. “What kind of music do you play? No wait let me guess … Indie Rock am I right?” 

“Yes! Wow how did you know that?” Simon asked excited while Alec was rolling his eyes in the background. He really didn't want to listen to this conversation any longer. He couldn't care less about this weird guys band or anything related to it and he felt like he should probably just leave his sister alone with him but just when he had decided to slip away he suddenly saw a very familiar face at the other end of the corridor and froze in the middle of the movement. His heartbeat stuttered and he caught his breath. What the hell was Magnus doing here? This couldn't be real or could it? He blinked a few times, already thinking that he was imagining things but then he realized that Izzy could see him as well.

“Oh Alec look - isn't that Magnus over there?” she asked and elbowed him, apparently not aware of the fact that Alec had already been staring at him for at least twenty seconds. “Is he a student teacher or something like that?”

‘Oh god please no’, Alec thought horrified. With his luck he would probably end up being in one of his classes and he was sure that he wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything when he had THAT sight in front of him the entire time. Also it would probably be very inappropriate to have such thoughts about the person who was supposed to teach him in general, even if it was ‘just’ a student teacher.

Luckily Simon shook his head. “No he's not” he said and Alec let out a sigh of relief. “He's working in the library … do you know him?” 

“Just a little bit. He's our neighbour and we had dinner together but it was a kind of awkward. I think our mother knows him for some reason” Izzy told him. 

“Oh. Okay. Well he's very cool actually. One of the nicest people I know” Simon said.

‘Hah - take this, mother!’, Alec thought triumphantly when he heard his presumptions being confirmed by the other boy. So Magnus really wasn't as bad his mother had wanted to make him believe. Simon seemed to know him better than she did and Alec couldn't help but be curious what else he could tell them about him.

“Uhm what else do you know about him?” he asked and tried his best to sound as casual as possible because he didn't want Simon or his sister to notice how eager he actually was to know the answer. He didn't know why he was that obsessed with Magnus Bane and he definitely didn't want others to know about it. 

Luckily neither of them seemed to find his question suspicious and Simon answered immediately: “Well he's very funny and charming and a very engaging person to be around” he told them. “But he is also a little bit strange sometimes. I feel like he never really opens up to other people. I mean he is definitely very talkative and a lot of people like him but still he almost never meets anyone outside school as it seems. So many people already asked him out on a date or just wanted to hang out with him but he always said No. Not in a rude way though but I think he has trust issues or something like that. Or maybe he's heartbroken I don't know. Sometimes he seems a little bit lonely but I could also be wrong. He's a mysterium to many of us … Oh and he is very openly bisexual but since he doesn't really seem interested in dating anybody at the moment that's probably not an overly interesting piece of information for you.” 

Oh how wrong he was about that. This piece of information was actually VERY interesting to Alec. He had probably never been happier than he was right now. Magnus was interested in men as well so theoretically … 

‘Yeah as if’ the sarcastic voice inside his head interrupted Alec’s hopeful thoughts immediately. ‘He's not going to date you anyways.’ 

Alec cleared his throat and vigorously pushed his thoughts aside. “How old is he by the way?” 

Simon shrugged. “About twenty-three I think but he lies about his age so it's hard to tell” he said. “Sometimes it seems he's much older but I don’t know … like I said there are many things we don't really know about him. But still he is way more trustworthy than any other person here, believe me.” 

Twenty-three. So he was almost six years older than Alec was. That wasn’t as much as he had expected if he was being honest. Not that Magnus would look very old but he just seemed so experienced and mature. Compared to him Alec felt like a little child. He wondered if he saw him as such. 

“Sounds like you know him well” Izzy said and Alec tried hard to think about something else. This really shouldn't matter to him. Yes, Magnus was very attractive - probably the most attractive man Alec had ever seen - and he kinda confused him but he definitely didn't have any romantic interest in him so why did he even worry about stuff like that?

“Yes we're actually pretty close” Simon said proudly. “I mean I wouldn't say that we're best friends or something like that but we often have lunch together and … oh, hi Magnus!”

Alec winced when he saw that Magnus had approached them while Simon was talking and was now more or less standing directly in front of them. He was wearing a pair of perfectly sitting black trousers, an elegant shirt in a similar, rather decent colour and a very flamboyant red jacket with some black splashes of color which was strongly contrasting with the rest of his outfit. His nails were painted black and he wore two rings on each of his hands. He looked gorgeous. 

“Hey Sheldon” he said, looking at the boy they had just met and grinned.

Alec raised his eyebrows. “I thought your name was Simon.”

Simon blushed and Izzy giggled quietly.   
“That's just for fun” he explained embarrassed. “He knows my name. He just loves teasing me and pretends that he doesn't.” 

“That's true, Sherlock” Magnus said with a chuckle. “I really love teasing you. However it's a great pleasure to see you again Isabelle and Alexander.” 

He smiled at them and Alec was pretty sure that he looked like an idiot. Why did it feel so special when Magnus called him by his full name? 

“It's great to see you too” Izzy answered cause Alec couldn't get a word over his lips right now. All he could do was stare. Luckily Magnus didn't seem to realize or he just was very good in pretending he hadn't. 

“Where did you leave your brother by the way?” he asked now and Alec couldn't help but wonder if Magnus would have noticed as well if he had been the one missing instead of Jace. Probably not. 

“He is apparently having lunch with Clary” Simon joined the conversation again. 

“So Biscuit and Blondie … interesting” Magnus mumbled.

“Biscuit?” Alec asked and swallowed nervously when Magnus was looking at him.

“Like Simon already hinted I love giving nicknames” he explained. “I would also make up one for you but I actually like the sound of Alexander very much.” 

There it was again! Did Magnus know how much Alec liked it when he said this word? Was he being too obvious?

“Or would you like it better if I called you pretty boy instead?” Magnus continued. “You don't really like your full name if I remember correctly.” 

Pretty boy?!! Now he was just making fun of him. But nevertheless Alec could feel his face heaten up at his words. 

“No … uh ... Alexander is fine actually” he said hoarsely.

“Really?” Magnus sounded surprised and Alec could feel that Izzy was staring at him. She knew exactly that Alec had never allowed anybody to call him like that before and he was certain that she would pepper him with nosy questions about this later. Great.

Alec looked his hands and nodded. 

“Okay. Then I'm going to call you Alexander.” 

“That's not fair” Simon complained. “Why is he allowed to choose how you call him and I'm not?” 

“Because he's prettier than you are” Magnus answered without hesitation.

“Ouch. Well now I'm offended.” Simon crossed his arms in front of his chest and pouted. “I'm not that unattractive or am I?” 

“I was just kidding Sheldon so calm down.” Magnus chuckled. 

“So … uh … we've heard that you work in the library here” Izzy changed the topic.

“Oh yes I do. Have you already been there? If not I could show you” Magnus offered. 

Izzy beamed at him. “Yes that sounds great. My brother loves libraries and books you know? It's quite cute actually.” 

“Izzy” Alec hissed embarrassed but Magnus just grinned at him. 

“Well then … follow me” he said with an elegant wave of his hand and turned around gracefully, presenting his butt to Alec as if he was trying to tease him. “And watch where you're going, Alexander, we don't want you to stumble over your own feet just because you are too distracted by the sight in front of you, right?” 

Now Alec was certain that his head was going to explode at any second. He just wanted to die. 

Pov Magnus 

Oh how much Magnus would have liked to see Alexanders face right now. He was almost certain that the tall boy behind him was as red as a tomato because of what he had just said to him but he didn't want to make him feel even more embarrassed by looking at him so he just kept walking with a little grin on his face, proud that his flirting skills were still working. He had thought that maybe he was a little bit rusty by now because he had been holding back with flirting for quite a long time but apparently he hadn't lost any of his charm in the last few years … 

For a moment Magnus zoomed out, lost in thoughts, but then Isabelle’s voice brought him back to reality again. 

“I really love your outfit by the way” she said. “That jacket is awesome.” 

Magnus smiled at her. “Thanks a lot” he said. “Your outfit is really good as well. It’s a shame that so many people understand nothing about fashion nowadays but you're definitely an exception there.” 

“Thank you.” Izzy beamed at him and Magnus felt like this could be the start of a great friendship. 

Actually he was genuinely surprised about how things were going at the moment. He had never expected the Lightwood children to be that sympathetic and he didn't really know how to deal with it. He really wanted to get to know them but at the same time his brain still screamed that it was a bad idea. That he should stay away from this whole family as far as possible. That this could only end in disaster. He definitely had enough problems to deal with already like for example his living situation with Ragnor or the thing with the boy who had been murdered by the vampires two days ago so he really didn't need another one right now. 

He and Lily had managed to bring the boy back so he was a vampire now but he wasn't exactly happy about it. He refused to talk to them so they still didn’t know anything about him. Not even his name.   
He was clearly suffering and Magnus was starting to regret the decision he had made. 

Of course the death of the boy had been extremely tragic but still he shouldn't have decided to just bring him back. No matter how difficult the situation might have been - it had not been his right to decide over that. He had basically forced him to live like that. But then Magnus remembered how he had looked down at the dead boys body and he couldn't help but think that if he had to choose again he would make the same decision. 

He sighed. Thoughts like these had been going through his head almost the entire time for the last two days now and it definitely didn't help him to sleep better at night. 

“Hey Magnus are you alright?” Simon asked concerned and put his hand on his back.

Magnus winced slightly. It had been such a long time already but still he could feel the pain from time to time, especially when he was stressed like now. He wondered if this would ever stop completely. Most of the time he was fine but still … sometimes when people touched him like that unpleasant memories came up inside of him and he remembered things he didn't want to remember.

Of course Simon didn't know anything about this. Nobody did actually. Magnus had never told his whole story to anyone except Catarina cause he felt like she was the only one who could really understand. 

It wasn't like Magnus didn't trust Simon or Clary or Aline - he had known them for a few years now and they were closer to him than they probably knew - but they were not a part of his world and he definitely didn't want them to get involved with all the crap he had to go through. They deserved a normal, peaceful life so he always tried to not let them know too much about him. Just like now.

He pushed all his bad feelings aside when he eventually looked at Simon and smiled instead, like he always did. 

“Of course I'm fine” he said - a sentence he had said so often already that sometimes he could even convince himself that it wasn't a lie. “I was just lost in thought that's all. I have a rather unpleasant house guest at the moment and I'm still trying to figure a way out how to deal with the situation.” 

That was the truth actually. Not the whole truth but a part of it. When Magnus had learned something in the course of his long life then it was to always put a little bit of truth into every lie cause that made it way more believable. And he didn't feel that bad about it then.

Simon frowned. “Unpleasant house guest ... you mean like a rat or something?” he asked.

Magnus gave a laugh. “I wish.”

“So no rodents? Cause if you have problems with that I could call my uncle. He's a pest exterminator and I'm sure he would help you out for free since you're a friend - ” Simon offered eagerly. 

Magnus chuckled and shook his head. This guy really was something else. When he had first met Simon Lewis he never would have thought that he would like him that much someday but he was just incredibly adorable in his own very unique and nerdy way. Also Magnus really loved his sense of humor.

“I'm very flattered and tempted by the offer but unfortunately my problem isn't a rat or any other kind of rodent and he would probably be very upset if I tried to get rid of him with a pest exterminator. It would be fun to see his reaction though.”

Izzy laughed.

They had arrived at the library by now and Magnus opened the door, letting the others step inside first. 

“Thank you” Alec said and gave him a shy smile when he walked past him, his face still slightly red. Magnus smiled back automatically. Gosh this boy was definitely triggering something inside him. His smile made Magnus feel something he hadn't felt in a very long time. It was overwhelming and very confusing cause he hadn't expected this to happen at all. 

“You're welcome” Magnus said, a little bit perplex. Immediately he heard Ragnors voice echoing inside his head: ‘I predict that you are totally going to fall for the tall Lightwood boy sooner or later … I know you and your fabile for tall, dark haired and good-looking guys ... You have never been able to resist them and I bet you can't resist that one either.’

He bit his lip. Damn it. He couldn't let this happen. He couldn't allow himself to think about Alexander in a romantic way - not because he didn't want to lose the bet of course but because it was just way too dangerous. It was insane. 

Magnus watched how Alec walked through the library and desperately tried to find something unattractive about him (apart from his very colorless, dull and old looking clothes) but he just couldn't find anything. It was very frustrating. ‘Well his hair looks like he hasn't brushed it in a few years’ Magnus thought, normally finding something like that extremely unattractive but unfortunately it actually looked very good on Alec. Just like his horrible clothes. Damn it.

“Well” Magnus said loudly and clapped his hands, mainly to distract himself. Alec however winced in shock about the sudden loud noise and dropped the book he had just pulled out of the shelve. With red cheeks he quickly picked it up again and put it back. 

‘Please stop being so cute’ Magnus thought and tried to not look into his face for too long. “So this is the library. It's opened from 8am till the late afternoon” he continued talking as if nothing had happened. “There are many books about different subjects … all school related books are here on the right and on the other side we also have some more entertaining stuff.”

Magnus walked through the room and the others followed him. Even though Simon obviously knew already how the library was organized he listened to everything he was saying with a interested expression on his face. 

Izzy interrupted him a few times while Magnus was explaining stuff and asked questions, while Alec didn't really seem to listen to what he was saying. He was looking around the entire time as if he was trying to memorize every little detail about the room.

“Found something more interesting than me?” Magnus asked eventually, unable to hide the hint of amusement in his voice.

Alec blushed and stammered something incomprehensible, when suddenly somebody else entered the library and saved him from this surely awkward situation.

“Aline!” Magnus said and wanted to introduce her to the others but apparently there was no need to do that. She seemed to know them already. Or at least Alec.

“Oh there you are. I was looking for you before my first class but I didn't see you anywhere” she said and hugged him. Alec looked startled at first but then he smiled and returned the embrace. “Well now you found me.”

Magnus shook his head. “Unbelievable how fast you know everybody in this village.” 

“Well we coincidentally met in the park the day before yesterday” Aline told him. “But I don't know the hot black haired girl yet.”

She smirked at Izzy who looked flattered. Magnus was proud that Aline was more open and confident about her sexuality by now (well most of the time at least. When she saw Helen Blackthorn she still wasn't able to do anything else than staring at her). 

“I'm Izzy, Alec’s sister” Izzy introduced herself and shook Alines hand. 

“Nice to meet you” Aline said with a smile, then she looked at Magnus, her eyes glittering with excitement. “Did you already hear the news by the way?” 

Magnus frowned. He had no idea what she was talking about. “I don’t think so … it's not another rumor about me or is it?” 

Aline shook her head. “No it's not.” Magnus was relieved. It definitely was bad enough that this crap about him and Ragnor was spreading among the students. 

“So what is it then?” Simon asked curiously. He had been surprisingly quiet for the last few minutes and Magnus had almost forgotten that he was with them as well. Judging by the way he was looking at Isabelle he guessed that she probably had something to do with it. Simon was clearly attracted to her and probably too distracted by her appearance to say something.

“I’ve heard some teachers talking on the hallway and there’s probably going to be a dance here at school the day before the winter holidays start” Aline told them and beamed with joy. “Some students suggested it last year but it was already too late to organize everything so it's going to be this year instead.” 

“Oh really. That's amazing” Magnus said. He could totally understand Alines enthusiasm. He loved parties and he loved dancing. Too bad that he wasn't a student here - he would have loved to buy himself a absolutely fabulous outfit and go there as well ...   
Alec on the other hand didn't look very happy about the news. 

“I wish I could also go there” Magnus said. “School dances are always fun.” He sighed.

“Why shouldn't you be allowed to go there?” Izzy asked confused.

“It's probably going to be just for the students from this school and I'm not a student.”

“Hmmm … and what if a student invited you as their partner?” she asked and Magnus noticed that she glanced over at Alec who immediately turned bright red.

“Yeah that's a great idea” Simon agreed with her but obviously he had not noticed what she had actually been hinting at: “You can go to the dance with me. As friends I mean. I probably won't find a date anyways and I also wouldn't mind going there with a boy you know. It maybe looks weird for some others but I really don't care … ”

Magnus had a hard time hiding his amusement, just like Aline who was giggling at Simons words. 

“Thanks for the offer but I think I'm fine” Magnus said with a chuckle. 

“Really? Oh or is there somebody special you want to go with?” 

Magnus shrugged. “Not really but well … let's just see what happens.” 

\------------------------------

About ten minutes later the others had to leave because they had classes again. Alexander was the last one to leave the room and gave Magnus a quick smile before he left.

Magnus sighed and looked after him till he was out of sight. This wasn't fair. 

He tried not to think about how adorable that boy was and returned to his work but he just couldn't concentrate.

Maybe he shouldn't have flirted with him like that. He definitely found Alexander very attractive but being with him would never work. Sometimes Magnus really hated that he didn't have any control over his mouth and now was one of these moments again.   
Judging by the way he had acted around him he had a feeling that Alexander found him attractive as well - either that or he was just a very shy person in general - and he really didn't want to hurt him.

He wished he could just ask him for his phone number or a date but there were just way too many things that could go wrong, way too many differences between them and Magnus didn't want to risk breaking Alec’s heart in the end. Also he couldn't do this to himself. Not again.

He had fallen in love with mortals before and it never ended well. Sometimes Magnus hated himself for who he was cause his immortality made it impossible for him to love and be together with somebody for his entire life. But by now he had accepted it. 

He had closed himself off from romantic love completely. There was a wall around his heart and he was afraid that maybe Alexander would manage to make it crumble down if he let him in too much.  
He definitely couldn't risk that. They were from totally different worlds, different centuries. 

Magnus was sure that Maryse had kept him away from the Shadow World in order to keep him safe and he definitely didn't want to be the one to pull this lovely innocent boy into it because it definitely wouldn't end well ...


	9. Chapter 9

Pov Alec 

“Come on just admit it - you have a crush on him.”

Alec rolled his eyes. “I do not” he protested. “I barely even know him.” 

“But you think he's attractive don't you?” Izzy continued to interrogate him. “I mean you said it's okay when he calls you Alexander. And you were blushing everytime he was looking at you.”

Alec sighed. He had already seen this coming but still he was slightly annoyed about his sister asking him all those questions, especially since he really didn't have any clue what it was that he was feeling for Magnus. He was just … confusing him. A lot. And talking about it didn't really help to make Alec less confused.

“Okay I can't argue that there's something about him that's kinda fascinating” he said eventually. “He's quite … magical - if you know what I mean.”

As soon as the words had left his mouth Alec already regretted them. ‘Quite magical? Seriously?!’ He really sounded like a lovesick idiot now. 

Izzy smirked. “Oh I know exactly what you mean” she said. 

“Seriously Izzy I don’t have any clue what's going on so please … just let me figure this out first.” 

Izzy nodded, now looking serious again. “Of course. I understand.” 

“Thank you.” Alec gave her a little smile. 

Classes had ended about twenty minutes ago but they were both still standing in front of the school and waited for Jace. He was standing a few meters away from them and talked to Clary. 

“I just want to say goodbye” he had said but Alec highly doubted that this could possibly take him that long. He was seriously tired of waiting by now.

“Do you think Jace is coming anytime soon?” he asked his sister. “We've been waiting for hours now. I mean what is he going to do … propose to her?”   
Izzy giggled. “Who knows?”

Alec rolled his eyes and threw his head back in annoyance. Patience had never been his strength. “If he isn't going to come anytime soon we should just walk home alone.” 

“No we can't do that … see he's coming over.” Izzy was right. Thank god.

Alec let out a sigh of relief. “Finally.” 

“Hi guys. Thanks for waiting it kinda took me a little bit longer than expected” Jace said when he eventually joined them.

Alec raised his eyebrows and snorted. “A little bit? Seriously?” 

“Awww come on don't be like that grumpy cat” Jace said with a grin and elbowed him. 

“I'm not grumpy I just don’t want to be here any longer” Alec defended himself. “Also mom told us to come home after school immediately cause she needs us to do something for her. You remember?”   
Judging by his facial expression Jace definitely did not remember. “Oh shit you're right.” 

\---------------------

When they came home and entered the house Max was already sitting at the table in the living room with a opened book and a piece of paper in front of him and was doing his homework. He still went to elementary school and his classes ended earlier than Alec, Jace and Izzy’s so he had walked home already. His head was bent down and his long hair was falling all over his face so Alec wondered how he could possibly see what he was writing down there. 

“Hi” Max said without looking up. 

“Hey buddy” Jace answered. 

Alec wanted to say something as well but in that moment Maryse came into the room. She looked slightly stressed but her expression relaxed a little bit when she saw that they were home again. 

“Oh finally - there you are” she said. “What took you so long? I've been waiting for you. I thought your last lesson ended about one hour ago and the school isn't that far away from here.”

She gave Alec and his siblings a questioning look. Nobody answered. 

Maryse sighed. “Well it's not that important anyways. The important thing is that you're here now. I’m really curious to hear how your first day at school was but like I already mentioned this morning there is something rather important I need to do first so we'll talk later, alright?”

Without waiting for an answer she walked into the corridor and grabbed the keys for her car from the cabinet. Alec, Izzy and Jace followed her.

“What do you need to do?” Izzy asked curiously but Maryse didn't answer. Maybe she hadn't heard the question or she was just pretending she hadn't. Alec wasn't exactly sure which one but it was probably the latter. 

“It's probably going to take a few hours until I come back so could you please keep an eye on Max while I'm gone?” she asked as if Izzy hadn't said anything at all. 

“I'm not a baby, mom. I don’t need someone to look after me” Max yelled from the kitchen. 

Alec couldn't hide a smile. His little brother really had very good ears.

Maryse however ignored him as well. Instead she looked at Alec and the others, waiting for an answer.

“Yeah sure. We're going to look after him” Alec said eventually. 

“Great. Thank you.” Maryse smiled and quickly stroked his cheek.

Mildly surprised about the little gesture of affection Alec smiled back at her. Since their brief conversation about Magnus the atmosphere between the two of them had been a little bit tense but apparently his mother wasn't mad any longer … or at least he hoped so. 

He still thought that she was wrong with what she had said about Magnus and that she was behaving very strange recently but he really didn't want to fight with her. Alec just wished she would talk to him and his siblings so they knew what was going on with her. Maybe they could even help her. 

Maryse opened the front door. “If you're hungry there are some leftovers in the fridge that you can warm up. I'll try to be back as fast as possible. I love you.”  
She hugged Jace and stroked Izzy’s hair, then she was gone and the door fell shut behind her.

For a few seconds nobody said anything but then Izzy broke the silence, expressing exactly what they were all thinking. “Okay so what the hell was that?”

Jace shrugged, looking just as confused as Alec felt right now. “Don’t ask me. I really don’t know what's going on with her. I think the last time she hugged me like that was on my birthday … I thought she just wanted to go somewhere for a few hours.”

“She definitely has some very serious mood swings that much is sure” Izzy said. Alec could definitely agree with that.

“Well maybe she's pregnant” Jace said rather jokefully. Izzy stared at him with horror. “Oh my god please no. She's too old for that isn't she? I mean no offence but I'm definitely not in the mood for babysitting right now. Also we're already four. That's definitely enough if you're asking me.”

“What kind of girl are you?” Jace asked with a hint of amusement in his voice. “I thought that's a natural thing for women - that you're all totally crazy about babies and puppies and stuff like that.”

Izzy rolled her eyes. “Not all girls are the same Jace. And I for my part think that babies are annoying as hell. I definitely wouldn't say no to a puppy though.” 

Jace laughed and shook his head. “You're really weird.”

“No I'm not!” Izzy said and was just about to slap Jaces arm when her phone started ringing. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the screen. 

“Oh it's Simon” she said. “Didn't take him very long to call me.” 

Alec wasn't really surprised about that. When Izzy had given the boy from their school her phone number at the end of the lunch break he had looked as if he was about to faint or something like that. Izzy probably didn't even realize what she was doing to him. She thought he was funny. Alec just hoped that the boy wouldn't fall for her too badly and interpret too much into her giving him her number because he was relatively sure that Izzy wasn't interested in him like that. Not seriously.

“You better be thankful for the interruption Jace cause I definitely would've kicked your ass otherwise” Izzy said. “I'm going to be in my room then.” 

“Oh I am thankful” Jace yelled after her when Izzy was already walking up the stairs and talking to Simon. “Whoever that guy is - I already love him.” 

Alec held back a laugh. He was relatively sure that Jace wouldn't like Simon if he knew him cause he couldn't stand people who were talking too much but he didn't say anything. 

When Izzy was gone Jace and Alec walked back into the living room. Max was still sitting at the table and looked like he was about to have a mental breakdown. 

“What ‘ya doing there?” Jace asked curiously and looked over Max's shoulder, trying to see what he was writing.

“Maths” he answered and put his pen aside with noise of frustration.

Well that definitely explained why he looked so tortured.

“Oh.” Jace grimaced and suddenly looked significantly less interested. Alec couldn't blame him. As much as he liked school - maths was something even he couldn't stand. All those stupid numbers were giving him a headache. 

“Yeah. I've been trying to solve this problem for over twenty minutes now but I just can't concentrate” Max complained and massaged his temples. He looked pretty exhausted. 

Alec immediately felt sorry for him. “Maybe you should take a little break and try again afterwards” he suggested. “That works for me most of the time.”  
Max nodded. “That's probably a good idea … “ 

Suddenly his eyes lit up and he looked much more awake again. “Can you two show me some combat stuff again? Mom’s not here so she can't get angry about it … pretty please.” He made puppy eyes and looked at Jace first, then at Alec, waiting for him to say something.

Back in New York Alec and Jace had been doing combat sports together and Izzy had been visiting a kickboxing class twice a week. Maryse had not been very happy about that. She had never understood why they were all so interested in learning different combat techniques and how to use them against others and for some reason it seemed to bother her very much. 

Alec still didn’t really know what exactly her problem was. Maybe she was just afraid that they would get hurt but there was almost no sport that wasn't at least a little bit risky and he had never gotten seriously hurt in combat so far. 

Still Maryse made a drama about it. She was very overprotective and concerned about almost everything they were doing. Alec knew that she only meant well but she was definitely exaggerating and most of the time it was just very annoying. 

When Max had once asked her if he could join Alec and Jace’s class as well a few years ago she had not allowed it, claiming he was too young. Back then she had probably been right but Max was a lot older now and she still tried to keep him away from combat as much as before, constantly encouraging him to pick a different sport instead. Max however had no interest in any other sports so Alec and Jace sometimes showed him what they had done in their class and teached him the different techniques. Without their mother knowing of course. 

“Well … “ Jace said after a few seconds of silence and gave Alec a questioning look. 

Actually Alec was quite hungry because he hadn't eaten anything at school but this shouldn't take too long. Also he knew how much Max loved to train with them so he just couldn't say no.

“I'm fine with it.”

“Great!” His little brother beamed with joy and jumped to his feet immediately, his brown eyes glittering with excitement. “Let's go outside then.” 

Before Alec could say anything else Max had already stormed off teared open the front door. Alec couldn't help but chuckle a bit. Max really did have a lot of energy again all of a sudden.

“Not afraid that I'm going to kick your ass huh?” Jace asked cockily when they walked to the door as well. 

Alec just gave a laugh. “You wish.” 

Pov Magnus 

It was late in the afternoon when Magnus's work was done and he closed the doors of the library behind him. Like always the corridors were mostly empty and very quiet at that time because almost all students had left by now. Marc had left a few minutes earlier as well (he had an important appointment today and didn't want to be late) so Magnus was all by himself. Or that least he thought so until he suddenly heard somebody walking through the corridors behind his back, a woman probably, judging by the noise of heels clattering over the stone floor.

Magnus turned around and saw that he had been right. It was indeed a woman who was approaching him and he was actually very glad about seeing her.

“Oh Eleanor, what a pleasant surprise” he said and smiled brightly. 

“Yes it definitely is” the tall, blond haired woman answered and smiled back at him. “We haven't seen each other in a long time … Well actually it felt like the summer holidays only lasted for two weeks but you know what I mean.” She laughed. 

“Yeah I know.” 

Magnus had to admit that he had really missed talking to Eleanor like that. Eleanor - or Ms. Blackthorn how many others called her in here - was the headmistress of the school. For Magnus however she was more like a very close friend. 

“How was your first day back? Is Marc good to work with?” Eleanor asked.

“Yes he's okay” Magnus said. “I mean I don't really know him yet but he seems nice.”

Eleanor seemed relieved. “That's good to hear. How are you by the way? You look pretty exhausted.”

She was frowning now and almost looked a little bit concerned. Magnus wasn't very surprised that she could read him that easily. As a mother of seven children she definitely had an eye for things like that. It was almost impossible to keep something hidden from her and she could always tell when she was being lied to. 

Magnus had always been extremely fascinated by her and how much she was capable of. She was basically surrounded by noisy children and moody teenagers 24/7 - at home and at her job - but she never seemed to lose her temper. Generally Magnus loved children but having tons of them around him constantly and without any break would be too much for him to handle. Sometimes his cats were already giving him a headache so he would definitely be hopelessly lost if he was in Eleanors situation.

Even though Magnus had lived for many centuries now he had never been part of a family like that. He couldn't imagine what it felt like to have as many siblings as the Lightwoods or the Blackthorn children for example. Magnus had never been part of such a huge family construction and as a child he had always been extremely jealous of those who were. It had taken him some time to realise that family wasn't just something you were born into, that it didn't end with blood. And that it definitely didn't start there either. The only biological relative Magnus had left was his father and that asshole definitely wasn't part of his family. Many other people however were.

The warlock who had adopted him as a teenager for example - his mother. Then of course Catarina, his oldest friend. Aline, Simon, Clary and the Blackthorns too. They all were family for him. He even considered Ragnor part of his family, no matter how annoying he might be most of the time. Of course he would never tell him but Magnus liked to think of him as his grumpy cousin. 

Magnus loved all those people and he hated that he had to lie to more than half of them but he didn't really have another choice. Telling them everything about him and his life would just put them all in great danger and he couldn't do that. So he also had to lie to Eleanor even though it was the last thing he wanted. 

“Oh it's nothing, really” he said and tried to sound as casual as possible when responding to Eleanors question. “I just didn't sleep very well last night - that's all.” He smiled at her.

Eleanor raised her eyebrows, clearly not believing him. Nevertheless she didn't say anything about it and didn't push any further.

“Then you should better go straight home and take a break” she just said and smiled back at him. “You are always doing so much for others but please don't forget to take care of yourself as well.”

She gave him a serious look that immediately reminded Magnus of his mother. There was no way he could possibly contradict her now.

“I won’t forget about that” he promised. “Same goes for you though.”

Eleanor laughed. “Well with seven children to take care of I don’t really have that much time left for myself but I'll try my best.”

“You know that if you need somebody to look after them you can always call me, right?” Magnus reminded her.

Eleanors oldest children Mark, Helen (who also was Alines secret crush) and Julian as well as the twins Livvy and Ty all went to this school and Magnus saw them quite often, especially the twins since Ty loved visiting the library and Livvy basically never left his side. Ty was autistic and he didn't like loud noises or crowds of people so when there was a break he either went to a quiet spot outside the building (he loved being in the nature as well) or he came into the library since it was a place most students avoided at all cost.

The younger Blackthorn children, Dru and Tavvy, still visited elementary school but of course Magnus knew them as well. Magnus really loved them all so looking after them was something he would definitely enjoy doing.

“I mean you could go on a lovely date with your husband once in a while and I would take care of them until you come back” he suggested. 

“Oh no I can't demand that from you.”

“You're not demanding anything” Magnus said softly. “I want to do it. You know that I love your children.”

Eleanor smiled, giving in. “Yes and they love you as well.”

Magnus couldn't help but blush.

“I'll take your offer into consideration then” Eleanor continued. “But now you go home and sleep. That's an order.”

She gave him another serious look and Magnus nodded. “Aye-aye, Ma'am” he said just as serious and heard Eleanor laugh when he walked away. 

\--------------------------

About twenty minutes later Magnus arrived at his house. He was just about to walk inside when he suddenly heard noises coming from the property to his left - the Lightwood house - and stopped in the middle of the movement. Curiosity taking over he took a few steps back again so he could see what was going on over there.

First there only was Max, the youngest one with the long hair, but shortly afterwards Alec and Blondie came out of the house as well. They seemed to be bickering with each other and Magnus couldn't help but grin about it. Max seemed to be very excited about something and Magnus wondered what was going on.

Without really being aware of what he was doing he leaned his hip against one of the wooden pillars which were underpinning the roof of his front porch. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and dropped his glamour - the powerful spell which was normally hiding his true eyes. For Alec and most other people Magnus knew his eyes looked like they were dark brown but in reality they looked completely different. His true eyes were golden and had slit-shaped pupils like the eyes of a cat. They were his mark, the special feature which distinguished him from other warlocks. All warlocks had some kind of mark: Catarina for example had blue skin and Ragnors skin was green. Also he had horns. 

His cat eyes also allowed Magnus to see better than ordinary people. The glamour didn't take these powers away of course but it was blocking them a little bit. Now that the glamour was down and he allowed his magic to take over Magnus could see Alec and his siblings like he was standing right in front of them. 

Magnus watched how Alec and Blondie talked to their younger brother. It looked like they were explaining something to him but then - totally out of the blue - Alec suddenly grabbed Jaces arm and threw him over his shoulder. Blondie yelped in surprise when his back hit the ground and his siblings started laughing. Alec said something to Jace and Magnus could see a confident little smirk on his face while he was talking.

‘Fuck - that's really hot’ he thought.

But apparently Alec had been a little too confident cause already a few seconds later Jace kicked his legs and he fell down on his back as well, landing right next to his brother.

Now Jace was the one laughing. It looked like he wanted to say something but before he had the chance to do so Alec attacked again and they started wrestling. They were rolling through the grass and Max watched them with fascination.   
Magnus definitely was fascinated as well. 

‘Well one thing is sure now’ he thought. ‘They definitely have angel blood.’

Alec and his siblings may not be real Shadowhunters since they didn't have any runes and didn't know about the Shadow World in the first place but Magnus could definitely see the Nephilim blood coming through. As far as he knew Shadowhunters gained a very large part of their powers through the funny looking magical tattoos they called runes but even without those runes they did have some superior skills to mundanes. They learned quicker and they were better fighters but of course it was nothing in contrast to what they could do with their full powers. 

It looked like Maryse couldn't make her kids ‘mundane’ no matter how hard she tried. Deep inside they would always be Nephilim like he would always be a warlock.

Magnus's thoughts drifted off a little bit and when he was focusing on his neighbours again he saw that their hand to hand combat was apparently over. Or they were taking a break. They were both lying on their backs and breathed heavily. Their clothes were dirty and Alec's hair seemed to be even more messy than usually. Moreover Alec's shirt had been riding up a little and Magnus was able to catch a short glimpse of his delicately muscled flat stomach. Okay it was probably more than a short glimpse … 

Apparently there was no rune needed to bless the Nephilim with an amazing body. Magnus felt his throat getting dry and he subconsciously licked his lips.

It took him a few seconds until he realized what he was doing and he hastily teared his eyes away from Alec again. Gosh he was standing here like some perverted stalker or something like that. He couldn't do that. 

With determination he shook his head and hid his cat eyes behind the glamour again. He should really go inside now.

He turned towards the door and saw with horror that Ragnor was standing there, looking at him with a shit eating grin on his face. Of course he had to see this. Of fucking course.

Magnus gave him an angry look. “How long have you been standing there?” he asked and tried his best to cover up his embarrassment.

“Long enough” Ragnor answered and grinned even more. “You have drool on your chin by the way.”

Magnus had probably never felt more tempted to just launch a fireball straight into his friends face. “Shut the hell up!” he growled and walked into the house.

Ragnor followed him and giggled. “I told you that you were going to like the tall one.” 

“I don’t like him” Magnus said with emphasis but Ragnor just snorted.

“Yeah sure.”

“I'm going to turn you into a rat if you don't stop talking right now!” 

“A rat, really?” Ragnor asked in bored voice. “How uncreative.”

Magnus ignored him and went upstairs. He really couldn't handle this right now.

“Hey what are you going to do now?” Ragnor shouted after him.

“I'm going to go to sleep - that's what I'm going to do now” Magnus yelled back without looking at him. “And if you dare to wake me up I'm going to kill you.” 

Luckily Ragnor didn't follow him but nevertheless Magnus locked the door to his room with the most complicated spell he could come up with just to be sure. After that he kicked his shoes from his feet and fell face down into the mattress of his bed. The soft pillows were making him sleepy immediately and Magnus slowly started to relax. He turned on his back and thought about changing his clothes into something more comfortable but before he could do so he had already fallen asleep.


	10. Chapter 10

Pov Alec 

When he stepped outside Alec couldn't help but look over to Magnus's house for a second and he silently wondered if their neighbour was already at home again or if he still was at school. He didn't remember the exact time when the library closed so it was possible that he wasn’t back just yet.

To be honest Alec was still very confused about what had happened at school today. Maybe he was just being stupid again but he somehow felt like Magnus had been flirting with him and he really didn't know what to think about this. A part of him was really happy about it cause it didn't happen very often that somebody paid particular attention to him in the first place but on the other hand he was almost certain that Magnus didn't actually mean it in the way Alec wished he would. 

Alec didn't know very much about flirting - actually he didn't know anything about it if he was being honest - but there were a few things he had noticed over the past few years by watching Jace interacting with girls.

Jace apparently was very good at flirting and he also did it very often but there had also been quite a lot cases where Alec had been convinced that Jace was interested in somebody but in the end it had turned out not to be the case and that he had just tried to be friendly instead. 

Of course Alec didn't think that Jace was doing this intentionally - he rather thought that he didn't realise that some people could maybe interpret his way of being nice as something different. He was so used to being charming all the time that he probably wasn't aware of how flirty he sounded to someone who wasn't very experienced with this whole stuff.   
And with Magnus it probably was exactly the same. After all Simon had told them that he was a very charming person so Alec’s theory could definitely be true. 

In his opinion this whole flirting business was pretty stupid anyways. How on earth was he supposed to know whether people were just being very charming and friendly with him or if they really had serious interest? He wasn't a psychic after all. Alec couldn't read minds so how should he know what the other person's intention was when they didn't tell him?   
He had actually read some articles about this topic a few years ago because he had been so confused about all this stuff and the authors had always claimed that there would be specific signs that indicated romantic interest. In theory most of the things they said sounded quite logical but Alec quickly found out that he just wasn't able to see them in real life so nowadays he basically still was just as clueless as he had been back then. 

His siblings however were completely different. For them it seemed to be the easiest thing in the world to see all those signs and to tell whether a person was just being nice to them or whether they were interested in actually dating them. 

Why did humans behave in such confusing ways? Why couldn't people just tell Alec what they wanted from him straight away instead of always playing those cryptic games with him and making him a nervous mess cause he had no idea what the fuck was going on? 

“Hey you still with me?” Jace asked and elbowed Alec, interrupting his thoughts. “No offence but if you continue daydreaming like that our training session is going to be over very quickly.”

Alec rolled his eyes. “I'm not daydreaming. I was just thinking about something.” He grinned at his brother. “You know some people do that sometimes but you probably can't relate” he teased him.

“Hey!” Jace complained with a laugh and punched Alec’s arm. “I might be naturally blond but I'm definitely not stupid.” 

“Oh so your hair color is really natural? Doesn't look like it” Alec continued unimpressed.

“Whow okay now I'm offended” Jace said. “You can say about me what you want but I do not color my hair.”

Alec laughed. “That one really gets you everytime.”

“Yes cause there are certain topics you do not make jokes about and my hair is one of them … speaking of which - do you have a scrunchie so you can tie your hair back?” Jace asked Max, who shook his head in response.

“My hair isn't long enough for that anyways” he said with a sigh. “I tried to tie it back a few times already but it doesn't work.”

“I'm sure it's going to be long enough soon” Alec said and gave Max an encouraging smile. He knew that his brother was being teased for his hair quite often and it made him really angry. Why did people always care so much about things that hadn't anything to with them at all? Why couldn't they just shut up and leave him alone instead of always teasing him or asking annoying questions? If Max liked having his hair long it was his business alone and nobody else's. And it definitely didn't make him less a boy like some very narrow minded people apparently thought. 

“I really hope so” Max answered.

“Well then let's start” Jace said and clapped his hands. “Do you still remember the most important rule?”

Max nodded but before he had the chance to answer Alec had already grabbed Jaces arm and threw him over his shoulder. 

When he hit the ground Jace looked so shocked that Alec couldn't help but giggle. Max started laughing as well.

“The most important rule is to always be prepared for sudden attacks” Alec said with a proud smirk on his face, while he was looking down at his brother. He was definitely enjoying this very much. Jace however didn't seem to be very amused about the situation. 

“I wasn't asking you smarty pants but thank you very much for the demonstration” he groaned.

“My pleasure.”

“But you know what?” 

Alec frowned. “What?”

“Pride comes before a fall” Jace said with a sneaky grin on his face and before Alec could react to his brothers words he already felt his legs being kicked and he landed on his back as well.

“Damn it” he cursed. This time Jace was the one laughing. 

“Told you so.”

“Shut your mouth” Alec groaned but at the same time he couldn't suppress a chuckle. He actually really liked bickering with his brother from time to time. Of course that didn't mean that he would just let him win this.

In a fast movement Alec turned over and tried to attack Jace, hoping to catch him off guard again but unfortunately his brothers reflexes were very quick this time and Alec didn't manage to overwhelm him. Jace blocked his arm in the middle of the movement and tried to push him on his stomach but Alec managed to resist. 

“You really thought that would work twice?” Jace asked cockily while they started wrestling with each other, trying to push one another down. 

“Thought it was worth a shot” Alec answered unimpressed and wrapped his legs around his brothers waist. With a jerk he rolled over and grinned successfully when Jace was lying underneath him. He tried to press his wrists on the ground so he couldn't use his arms any longer to fight against him but he had forgotten that of course his brother could use his legs as well.

“Not your best idea” Jace said with a grin on his face and within the blink of an eye he had already changed their positions again. They were both fighting for dominance and Alec was determined to not let his brother win so they went on with their fight for at least another five minutes. 

Eventually Alec started getting out of breath a little bit and of course Jace had to tease him about it immediately. “What you're tired already?” he asked. 

“Does that mean you're giving up?”

“Definitely not” Alec growled.

Jace was trying hard to not let it show and make it seem like he wasn't affected at all but Alec felt that he was also slowly starting to lose concentration. His movements became more predictable so Alec eventually managed to push his face into the grass. Winner was who was able to hold the other ones head down for at least five seconds - that was the rule they always used for their fights. Alec already saw his victory close but after three seconds Jace managed to free himself and before Alec could even blink his brother was already sitting on his back and pressed his face into the grass instead, while twisting his right arm into a very painful position. Alec hissed cause he knew that he wouldn't be able to get out of this again. Jace had won.

“Wow that was so cool” Max said impressed. “Can you show me how you just did that last move?” 

“Sure” said Jace and released Alec’s arm before he rolled off of him again. “Just give me a second.”  
He laid down on his back and tried to catch his breath. 

“What - you tired?” Alec teased him and turned on his back as well so they were lying next to each other. “Seems like I wasn't as easy to beat as you thought, huh?”

“You're never easy to beat” Jace answered and Alec smiled. “I'm glad to hear that.”

For a few seconds they were just laying in the grass like that. Alec starred up into the nearly cloudless sky, while his raging heartbeat was slowly calming down again but then suddenly he heard noises coming from their neighbours house and he immediately turned his head, curious to see what was going on. 

He couldn't see much because of the distance but there were two people standing on the front porch and they were talking to each other. One of them was Magnus and the other one also seemed oddly familiar to Alec. It took him a few seconds until he realised that he had already seen that person as well. He was the guy he had met on his first day here when he was supposed to invite Magnus over for dinner. For some reason that dude still creeped him out a bit if he was being honest.

He and Magnus seemed to have a short discussion with each other, then they both walked inside the house and the door closed behind them.

Alec frowned in confusion. Was that guy with Magnus all the time? Did he live with him? Was he his boyfriend? 

All those questions were running crazy inside his head and Alec tried to ignore the strange feeling of tightness that suddenly started to spread in his chest. He wasn't jealous. He wasn't jealous at all.

“Hey watcha staring at?” Jace asked. 

“Nothing” Alec said and tried to act as casual as possible but even in his own ears his voice sounded very strained. “I think I'm going to take a shower now.” He stood up and wiped his clothes which were now covered in dirt. “Looks like you have everything under control with Max.”

“Yeah I do. You sure you're okay though?” Jace asked.

“Of course. Why shouldn't I?” Alec said and smiled slightly. 

Jace shrugged. “Okay. Well then let's continue shall we?” he said with a grin and turned back to Max.

“Yes you still have to show me this other thing … what you did with your legs.”

“Oh that's actually pretty easy …”

Alec watched Jace and Max for a moment and smiled. Then he walked back into the house.

\---------------------------- 

When he stepped out of the shower about twenty minutes later he felt a little bit better but there still was this weird pressure on his chest and the voices inside his head just didn't leave him alone. 

He was brooding about Magnus and he just couldn't stop. Simon had said that he wasn't in a relationship in the moment but maybe he didn't know about this guy. Or maybe they weren't a couple at all. Maybe they were just friends.

Alec looked into the mirror above the sink and sighed. “Why do I care so much already?” he asked his reflection. “I don't even know that guy properly.” 

Unfortunately his reflection didn't answer him. In fact that dude looked just as clueless as he did. 

“Okay this is ridiculous” Alec mumbled and walked out of the bathroom. He was wearing gray sweatpants and a casual shirt and his hair was still wet. In the hallway he met Izzy who was standing in front the window and looked outside.

“Oh hey there you are” she said when she saw him. “Do you know what's going on out there cause it lowkey looks like Jace is trying to strangle our little brother in the front yard.”

“He just wants to show him some combat stuff” Alec explained and looked outside as well. 

Izzy shook her head. “I just hope he doesn't kill him accidentally. Actually … wasn’t Max still doing his homework like a few minutes ago? Or how long was I gone?”

“Well it's definitely been a little more than a few minutes” Alec said. “Max didn't know how to do his maths homework so I suggested that he should take a little break.”

Izzy raised her eyebrows at him. “And you thought that turning him into a Mini Ninja behind our mothers back was a better idea than maybe just trying to help him with his problem?” she asked and it sounded like she couldn't really decide whether to sound reproachful or amused. In the end it was a mixture of both.

Alec blushed slightly when he realised that his sister was right. “I didn't come up with the idea” he tried to defend himself. “Max did.” 

Izzy chuckled, now definitely amused. “Of course he did. He would do everything to procrastinate doing his homework and you and Jace immediately fell for him when he gave you the puppy eyes am I right?”  
Apparently the look on Alec’s face was enough of an answer for her and Izzy started laughing.

“You still have a lot to learn boys” she said and patted his arm. “But now let's go downstairs. I'm starving.”

“Yeah me too” Alec agreed with her and they walked into the kitchen together. Just when they entered the room Jace and Max came back inside as well, their clothes covered with grass stains. 

“Oh hi - I guess you're hungry as well, huh?” Jace asked.

“Do you know how your clothes look?” Izzy asked back seriously. “Mom is going to kill you.”

Jace shrugged. “I don't know what you mean” he said nonchalantly. “I accidentally fell down in the front yard - that's all. She can't blame me for that.”

Izzy snorted. “Yeah sure” she said sarcastically. “And Max did as well?”

“We stumbled over each other.”

“You know that mom is never going to buy that shit, right?” Izzy asked with her arms crossed in front of her chest. “She's not stupid.” 

“Well I guess we're gonna see” Jace said.

Izzy just rolled her eyes in response and opened the refrigerator. “So where’s that stuff mom told us to put into the microwave?” she asked into the room. “I really need to eat something now or I'm going to lose my mind.”

“Oh uh I think it's better when I do that” Jace said quickly and pushed Izzy away from the fridge. “The microwave is brand new and I don't want to put anybody in danger.”

“Hey that's not fair!” Izzy complained angirly. “I know very well how to use a freaking microwave.” 

“Oh really?” Jace asked. He had apparently found their food by now and closed the fridge again. “Do I really have to remind you of the incident with the fish just a few weeks ago? When you were trying to defrost it and ended up activating the smoke detector?” 

“Yeah that's true” Max tossed in. “My clothes were smelling bad for hours because of the smoke and the burned fish. It was disgusting. And the microwave was pretty much useless after that.”

Izzy rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air. “It's not my fault that microwaves have all those confusing programs nowadays. How is anybody supposed to know how to specify that?”

“Maybe by reading the manual” Alec suggested cautiously.

Izzy turned around and threw him an angry gaze, probably because he was going against her now as well.

“But I don’t want to read an entire book when I'm hungry. I just want my food!” she said. 

“Well then just let me do it for you, alright?” Jace asked and without waiting for an answer he put their food into the microwave and started the program. 

“See? Totally easy.” He grinned confidently.

“Just shut up!” Izzy said. “And you two better take a shower before you are sitting down at that table. You look disgusting.”

This time Jace and Max listened to her and went out of the room without any protest.

As soon as they were gone Izzy let out a sigh of relief and sat down at the kitchen table. “Sometimes these two are really driving me nuts” she said. 

“I guess that's what siblings usually do” Alec tried to joke and sat down next to her.

Izzy chuckled. “Yeah you're probably right. But I'm still mad at you. You really could have helped me with them.”

“Right, I'm sorry” Alec apologised. “I guess there’s just so much going on inside my head at the moment that I don't really know what I'm doing.” 

“What do you mean?” Izzy asked curiously.

First Alec wasn't sure whether he should tell his sister about his problem or not but in the end he decided to do so. He had brought the topic up after all so it wouldn't be fair to not answer her.

“It's about Magnus” he said and looked down at his hands while he was talking. “I just saw him going inside his house together with another man and I think that they're probably a couple or something like that.” 

“Oh no I don’t think that” Izzy said. “Magnus told Simon about him as we were going to the library don't you remember? He said that he is having a guest at the moment and that he doesn't really like having him around. That's probably the guy you saw.”

Right. That totally made sense. Alec couldn't believe that he had already forgotten about that.

“Fuck you're right” he said and couldn't stop a happy smile from spreading on his face. To say he was relieved would probably be the understatement of the century.

“So you're relieved that he's still single?” Izzy asked with a sneaky grin and in his euphoria Alec immediately fell for it. 

“Yes” he said without thinking and Izzy gasped loudly. “HAH - I KNEW IT! YOU REALLY HAVE A CRUSH ON HIM!” she yelled and started chanting triumphantly. “Alec has a crush, Alec has a crush …”

What had he done? What the hell had just happened? Alec buried his face in his hands and desperately tried to hide his red cheeks from his sister. Great - now he had really fucked it up. 

Pov Magnus 

Magnus was in heaven. He couldn't really remember how he had ended up in this situation in the first place but he actually couldn't care less. His thoughts were full of different stuff right now, stuff that was way more important than the question how it was possible that he was suddenly lying on top of Alexander and was making out with him passionately. All that mattered right now was the boy underneath him - the sweet taste of his lips, the burning touch of his long, delicate fingers on his skin and the little sounds of pleasure he was making while he was kissing Magnus hungrily. 

Magnus grabbed Alec’s hair and pushed his tongue into his mouth. Alec welcomed him eagerly and made Magnus gasp. 

“You taste so good” he whispered after they had kissed for a little eternity and pulled his head back a bit so he could look at Alec’s face. His eyes were dark with lust, his hair messier than ever and his lips swollen from their kisses. He looked like the embodiment of sin. There was no way Magnus could possibly resist him like that. 

“Please don't stop” Alec said in a hoarse whisper and Magnus felt a shiver running down his spine at the sound of it.

“You're killing me Alexander“ Magnus mumbled and started kissing him again. This time however he wasn't concentrating on his mouth but on his neck. He traced his skin with his lips and his tongue and slowly explored the new territory before he started placing hot, open mouthed kisses all over his neck. Alec moaned deeply and wrapped his legs around Magnus's body, bringing them even closer. 

Magnus made a noise of approval but didn't stop what he was doing. He continued kissing Alec and slowly made his way over his shoulders and down his chest until he arrived at his perfect, slightly muscled stomach.

“You're so pretty“ Magnus purred and looked up to him with glowing eyes. 

“Not as pretty as you are” Alec answered and pulled Magnus up again. In the next second he had already changed their positions and pressed Magnus into the mattress of the bed they were lying on. 

As much as Magnus had enjoyed exploring Alec’s body he definitely didn't mind the change of control. The way Alec was looking at him was making Magnus even more horny than he already was.

“Now let me take care of you” Alec whispered and for the next few minutes Magnus's brain totally blacked out. When he came to his senses again Alec’s lips were back on his and he was kissing him deeply. 

It was so hot and perfect and Magnus felt like he was about to melt under Alec’s touch but then suddenly the mood changed completely and Alec started licking his face in a very weird way. 

“Uh … Alexander?” Magnus patted Alec’s back and carefully tried to push him away a bit but he didn't move. Instead he continued to lick his cheek and purred against Magnus's ear while doing so. Magnus giggled a bit because Alec's breath trickled on his skin but in reality he was just totally confused about what was going on.

“Okay please stop this … Alec!” He tried to sound serious but he failed miserably because he was still giggling. What the hell was this?

“Hey, I'm serious!“

But Alec didn't stop. Instead he suddenly started meowing as well.

Magnus froze, now completely hysteric. “Okay so this is starting to get a little bit weird. Too weird for my taste” he squeaked then Alec’s face started to blur and a few seconds later Magnus was staring into green cat eyes instead.

“Miau” made Sparkles and Magnus screamed in shock, now finally aware of what was going on.  
Sparkles, who had been sitting on his chest and licking his face jumped at the loud noise and landed at the floor with a hiss. 

“Well good morning to you too” Magnus said slightly angry when his heart wasn't racing any longer and sat up in his bed. Any kind of pleasure he had been feeling before was now definitely gone. “And thank you very much for ruining the best dream I have had in the last five years.”

He laid down again and tried to just go back to his dream but unfortunately it wasn't working. Thanks to the shock he was wide awake now. Great.

With a deep sigh on his lips Magnus rolled out of his bed and put on his morning gown. 

Sparkles was lying on the chair next to his wardrobe now and was showing Magnus his back. He was clearly upset.

Immediately Magnus felt sorry that he had been so harsh to him.

“Awww come on don't be angry with me please” he said and stroked Sparkles behind his ears, knowing exactly that this was his weak spot. First Sparkles tried to act like he wasn't impressed at all but eventually he started purring after all.

Magnus smiled satisfied. “So we're fine again, right?” he asked. Sparkles turned around and licked his hand. Magnus laughed. Sometimes he felt like this cat could really understand every word he was saying.

“I think that's a yes.”

He patted the cats head a last time, then his gaze fell on the door which was standing slightly open. Magnus frowned in confusion, remembering exactly that he had locked it before he had fallen asleep. There was no way how Sparkles could possibly have been able to get in here. Except for …

“Ragnor you little piece of shit!” Magnus yelled and stormed onto the hallway where his so called friend was casually leaning against the wall and grinned from one ear to another. Apparently he had been waiting for him. 

“Oh good morning sunshine” he said. “Finally figured it out huh? Took you long enough.” 

“You … I told you not to wake me up!” Magnus answered angrily and tried his best to hold himself back and to not do something he might regret later. Ragnor really was the most infuriating guest one could imagine.

“I didn't. Your cat did. I'm completely innocent.”

Magnus rolled his eyes. This statement was so typically Ragnor it was almost ridiculous.

“But you opened the door for him.”

Ragnor shrugged. “Maybe …” 

“How did you do that anyways?” Magnus wanted to know, now a little bit calmer again. “I put a spell on the lock.”

“This might be shocking to you but I'm a warlock as well and I do know how to remove spells” Ragnor said and looked down at his fingernails while he was talking, as if to show Magnus that he was extremely bored by their conversation. “Also this one was extremely easy to reverse. I felt very unchallenged to be honest.”

“I was tired, okay?” Magnus defended himself and pouted. “Otherwise you wouldn't have been able to remove it that easily.”

“Yeah sure” Ragnor said sarcastically and made Magnus roll his eyes at him.

“Well so now that I'm awake - what do you want from me?” he asked. At least he really hoped that Ragnor had had a specific reason for waking him up in the first place - and it better be something different than ‘I was bored’ or ‘I just wanted to annoy you’. 

“I want nothing. But there's an important guest waiting for you downstairs.”

Magnus frowned skeptically. He definitely didn't trust Ragnor with this. Who should be visiting him at that time? It really didn't make much sense to him. 

“What do you mean? Is this some kind of prank?”  
Ragnor shook his head and to Magnus's surprise he actually sounded honest when he answered his question, not like he was just trying to fool him: “No it's not.” 

Still frowning, but also a little bit curious now Magnus started walking down the stairs. Ragnor followed him.

“I really hope you're not lying and this mysterious guest really is somebody very important” Magnus said over his shoulder. “And by really important I mean somebody like Madonna. If she is the one waiting in my living room and if she wants to ask me if I am interested in being one of her background dancers on her next world tour I would probably forgive you for cruelly interrupting my dreams. But otherwise I definitely won't.”

“Well unfortunately I'm not Madonna but I hope you're not too disappointed” a very familiar voice answered and Magnus started smiling immediately when he saw the person the voice belonged to.

“Catarina! How could I ever be disappointed by seeing you?” he said happily and hugged her.  
Catarina returned the embrace and chuckled. “So I am important enough?” she asked teasingly. 

“Of course you are! You're even more important than Madonna would be.”

“Awww thanks. I'm flattered.” Catarina patted Magnus’s back and then pulled back again. “Also I'm sorry that I'm visiting you that early but Ragnor said that you were already awake.”

“Well I thought so. He's been sleeping for over twelve hours now!” 

“That's true” Magnus said surprised. “I haven't had such a long sleep in a very long time.”

“I'm very glad to hear that. So you're not too tired to have breakfast with me? In Paris maybe? I thought we could go to our favourite little café and talk.”   
Magnus couldn't believe his ears. This was an incredible idea. Magnus loved having breakfast. 

“Cat, I love you. You're an angel” 

Catarina laughed. “I already thought that you would like the idea. I have been working a lot lately but I do have two weeks off now and I thought that would be a good opportunity to spend some time with you. I know you have to be at school at eight but we still have plenty of time before that.” 

Magnus looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was even earlier in the morning than he had thought. It was only 5am. 

“Oh you're right” he said, not as surprised as he maybe should be, and noticed yet again how fucked up their sleeping schedules were. Actually they didn't really have one at all, since they were all downworlders who tried to live in both - the Shadow and the Mundane World at the same time. 

Sometimes that wasn't as easy as it may sound.  
Almost all supernatural creatures were rather active at night than during the day, especially vampires and demons of course since both species couldn't bear the contact with sunlight in the first place. Many of Magnus's clients visited him in the middle of the night but everything that happened in the Mundane World took place during the day so it was basically impossible to keep some kind of regular sleeping pattern. Magnus tried his best to adapt his sleeping rhythm to the Mundane World but it wasn't really working most of the time if he was being honest.  
After all he really couldn't blame Ragnor and Catarina for showing up at very weird times cause actually it wasn't really their fault. 

“Well then … are you going to come with us?” Magnus asked Ragnor.

“No I'm not. A big city like Paris is full of Shadowhunters 24/7 and I really don't want them to see me and figure out that I'm not as dead as they thought. I have to be careful. Also I could really use some more sleep.”

“Yeah you look really shitty” Magnus agreed with his friend and grinned at him.

Ragnor just flipped him off in return. “It was very nice to see you. I hope you have fun with this idiot” he said to Catarina and then he left the room.

“Yes go do some beauty sleep you definitely need a lot of it” Magnus yelled after him. 

Catarina shook her head but she also chuckled a bit while doing so. “You remember ‘the Odd couple’? These old movies with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau?” she asked. “That's you and Ragnor as Mundanes.” 

“Oh my god that's actually pretty accurate” Magnus admitted. “Oscar also just wanted to live in peace and then Felix moved in with him and drove him completely nuts.”

“But still you secretly love each other.”

Magnus made a face. “Love is a very strong word … but yes. As long as he's not talking or making rude gestures at me he's quite okay actually. At least sometimes.”

“Awww you're adorable” Cat teased him.

“I think we should really get going now” Magnus said and started moving his hands in order to create a portal but Catarina grabbed his wrist and stopped him before he was done. 

“What is it?” Magnus asked confused.

“Aren't you forgetting something?” Catarina asked back, sounding lowkey amused. At first Magnus didn't know what she was talking about but then he saw the look his friend was giving him and he realised that he was still wearing his clothes from yesterday (that were totally crumbled now cause he had been sleeping in them) and the morning gown on top of it.

Magnus blushed slightly. How could he forget about this? “Oh. Right” he said and was very glad that Ragnor wasn't with them any longer cause he definitely would have laughed his stupid ass off about this.

Quickly he flicked his wrist and magically changed his outfit into blue pants and a black silk shirt. At the same time he made some streaks of his hair turn blue and put on eyeliner as well as some very glittery eyeshadow.

“Better?” he asked and presented himself to Catarina like he was a model on the catwalk.

Cat nodded and laughed. “Way better.” 

Magnus smiled at his friend and when he started to open the portal this time she didn't interrupt him. 

“Après vous Mademoiselle” Magnus said when he was done and Catarina chuckled.

“Merci beaucoup” she thanked him and stepped through the portal first. Magnus followed her shortly afterwards.

\-----------------------

Their favourite café was in an area of Paris not many people knew. It was hidden quite well and Magnus and Catarina had found it completely by chance on one of their various exploration tours through the capital of france. The café was run by Jeff, a werewolf they already knew for quite a long time now and was a place which was mainly frequented by other downworlders.

When he saw Catarina and Magnus coming he greeted them enthusiastically.

“Ah what a pleasure to see you again!” he said. “Don’t you want to sit down? Do you want a coffee or something to eat?”

“Actually we wanted to have breakfast if that's possible” Catarina said. “I know it's almost noon here already but we basically just woke up.”

“Right, right, I totally understand” Jeff said. “Time difference, huh? That's no problem, really. You two can have whatever you want of course.”

“Then I take the biggest breakfast menu you have” Magnus said and sat down at one of the tables in front of the café.

Jeff raised his eyebrows. “You sure?” he asked. “That's quite a lot.”

“Well I'm very hungry so I'm definitely sure” Magnus said. “Also we have plenty of time so it doesn't really matter.”

When his breakfast arrived about fifteen minutes later Magnus saw that Jeff had definitely not been exaggerating. It really was quite a lot. Together with Cats food the table was completely full and it was almost impossible to eat without knocking something over. 

“I think we could use a bigger table” Cat said. Magnus could only agree with that so he used his magic and made the table grow wider.

“Magnus! That's not what I ... What if some mundane just saw that?”

Magnus shrugged. “The people at the other tables are downworlders anyways. You know it's very rare that a mundane shows up here.”

“True” Cat admitted and took a sip of her coffee while Magnus was already eating his way through all the delicious things on the table in front of him. There were eggs and croissants and baguette and cheese and many other things and Magnus felt like he was in heaven. This morning had definitely been taking a very pleasant turn after all.

He was completely concentrated on his food until Cat suddenly started talking again.

“Seriously what’s the matter with you?” she asked concerned. “You're eating like you're starved.”  
“I didn't eat that much yesterday. Or the day before that” Magnus answered.

Cat reproachfully shook her head and sighed. “Magnus you really need to take better care of yourself. It's important that you eat regularly” she reminded him.

“I know, I know. I'm just so busy all the time and then I sometimes forget about it. But I always have breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

“Yes it's quite obvious that you think that” Cat replied.

“Don't look at me like that. I'm fine really” Magnus assured her. The last thing he wanted was to make his friend worry about him. “Actually I'm more than fine … this croissant is so good I feel like I'm flying.”

Cat raised her eyebrows. “You sure you're alright? You do sound a little bit crazy now.”

Magnus dismissed her statement with a wave of his hand. “That's probably just the caffeine. I mean I slept really well anyways so I probably have a little bit too much energy now. However let's talk about you, not me. How's work going? Any exciting news?” he asked curiously. 

“Well … actually one of my colleagues asked me out just yesterday” Catarina said.

Magnus was delighted. “Oh really? That's amazing!”

Catarina however seemed not to be very certain about that. “You think so?” she asked doubtfully.

“Of course. I mean do you like him? Is he attractive? I mean it probably is a he or am I wrong?”

“No you're not wrong. It's a guy. Charlie. Little bit younger than me but very cute actually. And nice and good looking too.” Cat sighed.

“Then what are you waiting for?” Magnus asked. “Sounds like he's a catch.”

“I don’t know … it's just … I haven't been on a date in a long time. The job is my life and I really like it that way” Catarina said.

“But don't you miss it? Being together with somebody?” Magnus pushed.

Cat smiled sadly. “Of course I do but it's difficult cause he's a mundane ... I don't know if I can risk dating him. What about you? Do you miss it?” 

Magnus swallowed. This question hit him more than he had thought it would. Automatically his thoughts wandered to Alec. He definitely knew how Cat felt like. Being a downworlder really sucked sometimes. 

“Yes, sometimes” he said and tried to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal but he wasn't very successful. 

“Wow that really ruined the mood didn't it?” Magnus asked after a few seconds of silence and Cat laughed.

“Well at least I know that I'm not the only one with that problem” she said and gave Magnus a meaningful look. “But only if what Ragnor told me about you is true.”

Magnus sighed. Of course that little traitor had told her about Alexander.

“Funny how it can make you feel better when someone else is just as miserable as you are, don't you think?” Magnus asked. 

“Yeah. Then you can at least be miserable together” Cat answered.

They looked at each other for a moment and then both started laughing. 

“Well I'm sure that we are going to get through this” Cat continued optimistically. “And who knows - maybe in the end everything works out just like we want it to.”

Magnus smiled at his friend. “Yes I hope so” he said. “I really do.”


	11. Chapter 11

Pov Alec

“Alec. Hey Alec!” Jace hissed quietly and leaned over to him with his chair. “Come on don't ignore me man that's totally not cool!” 

Alec rolled his eyes and tried his best to just blend his brothers voice out but unfortunately it wasn't just as easy as that. Jace had always been very stubborn and unfortunately Alec’s silence didn't stop him from annoying him further. At the latest when he also started poking his arm with the tip of his pencil Alec lost his temper.

“What?” he hissed, a little bit more aggressive than intended, and brushed Jaces hand away from his arm. “We're not supposed to talk during the lesson, you know that!” 

“Yeah I do but I really need your help with this. I don’t understand a thing” Jace whispered desperately and pointed at the opened math book which was lying in front of him.

Alec sighed deeply. It was Friday morning and the two of them were sitting in class together. In the first half of the lesson the teacher had explained a few more important things about the topic they were currently dealing with and now they were supposed to solve some problems by themselves till lunch break. The rest was homework. 

“Jace, I'm really trying to concentrate here” Alec said, his voice now less harsh than before. “I can explain it to you on the weekend when we're at home though.”

He thought this was a fairly good offer but apparently Jace didn't see it like that. “But I don't want to do something like that on the weekend” he whined. “On weekends you're supposed to have fun and doing maths is the complete opposite of fun.”

Alec shrugged unimpressed. “Well too bad cause it's either that or nothing. And now please let me work.”

“Alec come on …” Jace started again but Alec didn't hear him out this time. He had enough of this so he raised his hand and cleared his throat in order to draw the teacher's attention on him. Luckily it worked very quickly. 

“Yes, Mr. Lightwood?” Mr. Garroway asked. “Do you have a question about the task?” 

Alec shook his head. “No, actually I just wanted to ask if I could use the bathroom” he said. 

“Oh. Okay. If it's really necessary you're allowed to go of course” Mr. Garroway nodded at him and Alec smiled thankfully. “Thank you. And by the way” he added while he was already walking towards the door, “Jace really needs some help but he's too shy to ask.” 

“Alec!” Jace hissed embarrassed and a few people started giggling. 

“Really?” Mr. Garroway raised his eyebrows and looked over to Jace. “There’s no need to be shy - I'm here to help you after all” he said and walked over to his place. The last thing Alec saw before he quickly whooshed out of the room was his brother giving him a dirty look. Yep, he would totally hate him for this. But Alec didn't care. Jace had been going on his nerves the whole morning now so he definitely deserved it. Also he secretly hoped that Mr. Garroway would actually be able to help him cause otherwise he had to do it instead and he really didn't want to if he was being honest. Not now and not at home either. 

Of course Alec didn't want to be mean and normally he really liked helping other people with their school work but Jace wasn't exactly an easy person to work with. He was stubborn and couldn't concentrate seriously for more than five minutes. Alec had tried to explain stuff to him before and it had always ended in him eventually losing his patience and Jace being upset about it.

Alec sighed and looked down the hallway, wondering what he should do now since he didn't really have to go to the toilet. Should he just keep on standing here and wait a few minutes before going back into the room again? No, that would be weird. 

Also he felt very stiff after sitting in class for so long so Alec decided to do something against it and started wandering through the empty corridors. He was moving without really being aware of where he was going and he only realised where he had subconsciously been heading to when he eventually saw the door of the library in front of him. 

Alec stopped walking and blushed. He hadn't really seen Magnus much in the last three days because he had been trying to concentrate on school and keep up with his homework. Of course he could have studied in the library as well but Alec was relatively sure that he wouldn't be able to do his work properly when Magnus was only a few meters away from him so he had decided to work at home instead. Also he didn't want Magnus to think that he just came to the library because of him. 

He couldn't deny that he missed seeing him though. ‘Maybe just one quick glance’ Alec told himself and slowly walked closer to the door which was standing open now that it was quiet on the corridors. During the breaks the door was usually closed so that the students inside could concentrate better. ‘One quick glance and then you're going to go back to class again. This is not weird at all. And even if it is - nobody is going to realise.’

At least that was what Alec thought. In reality of course things didn't exactly went like that and not even a second later he already collided with two kids who were just leaving the library and almost ran them over.

“Oh my god I'm sorry” he stammered and immediately wished that he hadn't left the classroom in the first place. This would only end in embarrassment again. “Are you alright?” 

The kids in front of him looked like they were only a few years younger than he was - about fifteen maybe - and they definitely were brother and sister. Alec guessed that they were twins as well cause they looked extremely identical - black hair, gray eyes and sharp cheekbones. 

The boy was wearing headphones so he wasn't sure if he had heard his apology but apparently he had: “No problem” he said but he wasn't looking at Alec while he was talking. Also he seemed to be slightly tense. 

Alec guessed that he was angry at him. The girl however gave him a friendly smile. “We're fine” she said. “No need to apologize.” 

“Okay” Alec mumbled awkwardly and watched how the two kids walked away together. He prayed that Magnus hadn't become aware of his presence through his little incident cause that would only make things even worse but again he wasn't lucky.

“Alexander!” Alec heard behind his back and his heart stopped beating for a second at the beautiful sound of Magnus's voice. Fuck. Now it was too late to run away. 

Slowly he turned around and swallowed nervously when he saw that their neighbour was approaching him with a big smile on his face. He couldn't believe it but it seemed like he was really happy about seeing him. “What are you doing here?” he asked and his voice sounded pleasantly surprised. “Don’t you have classes at the moment?”

Well now he had to come up with something. He definitely couldn't tell him that he was just here because he wanted to see him because that would be extremely weird. Not being able to find a other explanation Alec quickly decided to just stick to his original lie.

“Uh … yes. I … uh … I just wanted to go to the toilet” he said. “But I kinda forgot where they are.”

Magnus leaned against the door frame and grinned at him. “And so you ended up here? What a lucky coincidence.” 

Alec blushed. “Yeah.” 

“Do you want me to show you the way?” Magnus offered. 

“Oh no you don't have to if you're too busy” Alec declined hastily. He actually just wanted to go back to class and wallow in self-pity and shame for the rest of the day. “I guess I'm going to find it somehow.” 

“Well too bad because I insist” Magnus said and his smile was literally taking Alec’s breath away. 

Protesting was impossible cause he had suddenly lost all his ability to speak. And to think. “It's only going to take a few minutes after all. And Marc is still here as well.” 

Alec could only nod in response.   
He really wanted to say something but he didn't know what so he just walked next to Magnus silently and hated himself for it. Why was it so hard for him to start a conversation? Magnus probably thought he was totally boring. 

"Thank you" he said eventually. Not much, but a start. "For helping me out."

"No problem. It's my pleasure" Magnus replied. "I saw you met the Blackthorn twins on the corridor." 

"Uh yes. I think the boy doesn't really like me."

"Oh I highly doubt that" Magnus said. "He doesn't make eye contact with anybody if that's what you're concerned about. He's autistic and it makes him uncomfortable to look at people like that."

"Oh. I understand." 

"Also I really can't see how people could possibly not like you" Magnus added and Alec could feel his face heating up. Why was he saying such things?   
"And your shoelace is untied." Magnus laughed.

"Oh." Alec stopped walking and looked down at his feet. Magnus was right. "I should probably fix that" he said awkwardly but before he had the chance to do anything Magnus had already dropped to his knees right in front of him and started to tie his shoe for him as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Alec froze in disbelief. This couldn't really be happening, right? 

He stared down at Magnus and tried very hard not to think too much about the position he was currently in but unfortunately it didn't work and he couldn't stop some very inappropriate thoughts from coming to his mind. 

What if somebody would show up on the corridor just now and saw them like that?

Alec bit his lip and forced himself to stay calm but it only worked until Magnus suddenly looked up at him. Their eyes met and Alec was sure he would just pass out then and there. His skin was tingling all over and he couldn't breathe. 

Magnus slowly stood up again and their bodies were suddenly very close. Too close for Alec’s taste. 

"Done" Magnus said and his voice sounded a little bit hoarse while he was talking.

Alec opened his mouth and closed it again without saying something. He was probably on the verge of having a panic attack. He didn't know what to say but what he knew exactly was that he needed to get some more distance between them as fast as possible or he really needed to go to the bathroom. Just not for the reason he had claimed before.

"Yeah … uh … t-thank you" he stammered and hoped that his face wasn't as red as he imagined it to be.

Magnus seemed to realise just now how close they were and he quickly took a step back, clearly shocked. Alec was relieved but also a little bit disappointed. 

“Well actually we're already there” Magnus said after a few seconds of slightly uncomfortable silence. Alec frowned in confusion, his racing heartbeat slowly calming down again. “What? Where?” he asked.

“At the toilet.” Magnus pointed at the door which was behind Alec’s back.

“Oh right.” At least he couldn't possibly get even redder anymore. Alec had totally forgotten about his little lie after what had just happened but apparently Magnus didn't believe him anyways: “You don't actually have to go to the toilet am I right?" he asked with a little grin on his face.

Alec shook his head. “No I don't " he confessed. This was already embarrassing enough so he could as well just say the truth. Or at least a part of it.

“I just needed to clear my head for a second. Maths is really driving me nuts sometimes." 

Magnus laughed. “I totally understand." 

"I … uh … I guess I should really go back to class now" Alec said. 

"Right. It was really nice to see you again" Magnus said with a smile. 

"It was really nice seeing you as well." Alec smiled shyly and then quickly walked back the the classroom. 

For the rest of the lesson it was even harder for him to concentrate cause now he just couldn't stop thinking about 'the thing' that had happened between him and Magnus. Alec wondered if Magnus had also felt this weird tension between them or if he had just imagined it. He really didn't know what was going on and it was driving him insane ... 

Pov Magnus 

Magnus watched how Alexander basically ran away from him and he just wanted to slap himself for his stupidity once again. He had behaved completely inappropriate and now the poor boy was probably traumatized or something like that.

'Great job, Bane' Magnus thought angrily. 

He didn't know what exactly it was but something about Alexander just made it impossible for him to not flirt with him in some way. It was ridiculous. Normally Magnus was very well able to hold himself back with things like that - especially when he knew that he shouldn't be doing them in the first place - but with Alexander around he just couldn't think straight. He hadn't even been aware of what he was doing when he had kneeled down in front of him and tied his shoe. Magnus definitely hadn't planned on doing it but somehow it had just happened - like he had no control over his stupid body. He also hadn't realized how close he had been standing in front of Alec after that, not until he had looked at him with this shocked expression on his face. 

Magnus pressed his lips together and walked back to the library. 

Something like that could never happen again, he decided. Alec seemed to be rather inexperienced so he probably had no idea what was going on and Magnus definitely didn't want to give him the feeling that he was playing with him or something like that. They could never be together like that so he should just keep his mouth shut and try to become friends with him instead. Friends was good. Friends was safe. Everything else was way too much of a risk for them both. 

\------------------

Magnus didn't see Alec again for the rest of the day. He wasn't exactly sure whether he should be relieved or concerned about that. He just hoped that he hadn't scared him off completely by his weird behaviour because he really wanted to keep talking to him. Staying away from him completely was impossible anyways since they were neighbours and also visited the same school so he had to try and become friends with him. 

Magnus was still lost in thought when he heard somebody entering the library behind his back. He turned around and smiled happily when he saw the girl with the bright orange hair approaching him. 

"Biscuit!" he greeted her and hugged his friend immediately. 

"Hey" Clary responded and laughed. "Are you still busy here?"

"Yes but I should be done in a few minutes. Why are you asking?" 

"Well … " Clary started in a mysterious voice but she left the sentence unfinished and pretended to look at a book on the shelf next to her instead of talking on.

"Awww come on don't be like that" Magnus complained with a pout on his face and snatched the book out of her hand, putting it back into the shelf. 

"Hey!" Clary complained playfully and chuckled. "Aren't you supposed to give me access to all the books here? What if I wanted to read it? It looks pretty interesting you know."

Magnus raised his eyebrows. "You think a book about Algebra sounds interesting? Really? Since when?" he asked lowkey amused and crossed his arms in front of his chest. 

Clary shrugged in response. "Everything can be interesting" she said, acting completely unimpressed. 

Ugh she still was very good at teasing him that much was sure.

"Yes I totally agree" Magnus said, trying hard not to lose his patience. "I think it would be very interesting to hear what you wanted to say. Please just put me out of my misery and tell me. You know exactly how much I hate it when you are doing this." 

Clary smirked at him. "Yes I do."

"Stop teasing me already!" Magnus whined and gave her a begging look, that made his friend laugh.

"Okay, okay" she eventually gave in. "I was planning to go to park with some friends now and I wanted to ask you to join us." 

Magnus's face fell. "That's all?" he asked, a little bit disappointed. After all the teasing he had honestly expected a little bit more than that.

"Yeah. What did you expect? A trip to the moon?" Clary asked with a laugh. "I didn't say that it was something special but I just wanted to hang out a bit and enjoy the start of the weekend. If that's too boring for you you don't have to join us of course. Nobody is forcing you to come along."

"Of course I'm going to join" Magnus said offended. "I was just joking."

"Yeah sure." 

"Really. I would love to go to the park. But first I have to put those books back into the shelves." He sighed and looked at the two big stacks in front of him. 

"Wait I'm going to help you" Clary said and before Magnus could protest she had already grabbed one of the stacks. 

"Oh hey are you now working here as well?" Marc asked her when he was walking by. He had been busy cleaning the archive room and apparently he was done by now.

"No I'm just helping Magnus" Clary said.

"I can do that."

"No, no, I'm fine."

"Okay then." Marc took a step back and looked at Magnus. "Is there still something else to do?" 

Magnus shook his head. "No. You're done for today."

"Really? Great!" Marc beamed. "Then I see you again next monday I guess" he said and before Magnus could answer he was already gone.

"Wow that guy is definitely on Warp 7 if not more" Clary said impressed.

Magnus chuckled quietly. Normally it rather was Simon who was making Star Trek references the entire time but Clary had been friends with him since she was a little child and it definitely showed.

"Yeah but surprisingly he's not lazy or anything. He does his work pretty well but as soon as he is done he always runs away like his butt is on fire." 

Clary giggled. "That's a very funny picture … where do you want me to put those books now?"

"Wait I'll show you" Magnus said and quickly grabbed the second stack before he lead his friend to the other end of the room.

"Right there" he said and nodded towards the shelf to his right. He and Clary placed the books on the windowsill and then started putting them into the shelf.

"So how is it going?" Magnus asked after a while. 

"Good. Great actually" Clary answered.

"I've heard you're playing theater now."

"Yes I do. It's so amazing. I’m also helping to create the costumes and to draw the décor." 

Magnus smiled because Clary looked so happy. He loved seeing her happy. After the tragic death of her brother two and a half years ago she had been in a very bad place and it had broke Magnus's heart to see her so devastated. By now she was definitely doing a lot better again and he really hoped that it would last.

"Wow" he said. "That sounds like the perfect place for you."

"It is."

"And you're also still working in the coffee shop at the weekends?" 

Clary nodded. 

"That's very impressive. How do you even find time for anything else then?" Magnus asked.

"That's a good question" Clary said with a laugh. "Honestly I don’t know. But somehow it works." She shrugged. “I actually really like being busy like that. My life would be pretty boring and mundane otherwise."

'And it's a good distraction' Magnus added in his head. It had been shortly after Jonathan's death when Clary had started to join several school clubs and other stuff to keep herself busy, to stop herself from thinking too much about her loss. Magnus knew cause she had told him. 

Clary always told him everything and she trusted him completely. She was like a sister to Magnus and he felt the strong urge to protect her so he was always a little bit concerned about her. Of course doing other things in order to distract oneself wasn't a bad method to deal with such a situation but sometimes Magnus feared that she might be doing a little bit too much. Everybody needed a break at some point but Clary was often working the entire day. 

He was actually very glad that she wanted to spend some time with him and her friends cause she definitely needed it. She needed to relax.

"I understand" Magnus said. "What about your love life by the way? Anything exciting going on? I heard you are hanging out with Blondie now." 

"Oh, you mean Jace?" Clary chuckled. "Yes, he seems to be pretty nice so far. But I'm not so sure about him yet." 

"Why that?"

"I don’t really know how to describe it … I just want something real, you know?" Clary said and looked at him with a serious expression on her face. "I want something romantic, something that lasts and not just a hookup or something. I think I have to become friends with somebody first before I can really fall in love with them and I'm not sure yet if Jace is like that. I mean I definitely find him attractive but I guess I have to get to know him better first and find out if he's willing to wait."

"Well if he's not he's an idiot and doesn't deserve you anyways" Magnus said. "But I actually have a feeling that he's okay."

"Really?" Clary asked. "You know that I trust your so called 'feelings' more than anything. You have always been pretty good with stuff like that. It's like you always know immediately whether you can trust somebody or not and you're always right. Actually you're just like a dog."

Magnus raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me?" 

"You know like you always see it in the movies" Clary explained. "The dog always knows right from the start who the bad guy is. If a dog doesn't like a person there's definitely something edgy about them. Well at least in most of the cases."

Magnus chuckled and shook his head. This statement also was something that sounded extremely Simon-like to him.

"That's just long experience my child" he said and was just about to put the last book into the shelf when Clary started giggling and he stopped in the middle of the movement.

"What?"

Now Clary was the one who was shaking their head. "Nothing. It's just … you sometimes really sound like a grandpa or something like that. Not that this is a bad thing but considering that you're only seven years older than I am it's kinda funny."

Grandpa? Well that hurt. Like Magnus wouldn't already feel old enough with his 450 years. 

"First you call me a dog and now I'm a grandpa? I'm offended" he said with a pout on his face. "I mean I love dogs as much as I love cats but I'm definitely not a grandpa."

"Okay I'm sorry" Clary apologized but Magnus didn’t believe her for a second.

"No you're not" he said and put the last book into the shelf.

"Right I'm not."

Magnus and Clary looked at each other for a few seconds and then started laughing simultaneously.

\-----------------

"I can't believe I didn't ask this earlier but who did you invite to this spectacular event apart from me?" Magnus asked when he and Clary were walking down the street together a little bit later. They were on their way to the park now after making a quick stop at Clary's house to pick up a few things they needed. 

"Oh it's quite a few people" Clary answered. "Simon already took them to the park so they're all just waiting for us." 

"Well you know what they say … the best comes last" Magnus said confidently and winked at his friend. Clary laughed.

They arrived at the park about five minutes later and joined the others. Apart from Simon Clary had also invited Jace and Aline as well as Alec and Izzy so they were seven people in total.

Alec seemed to be surprised when he saw Magnus and he blushed slightly. 

"Hi there we are" Clary announced. "Sorry that you had to wait for us but Magnus was still busy and we quickly went to get some stuff on our way here. I guess you all know each other already?"  
Everybody nodded. "Great."

"So what did you bring?" Simon asked curiously and pointed at the basket Clary was carrying.

"Some fun stuff."

Izzy raised her eyebrows. "No offence but what's your definition of fun stuff?" she asked. "I mean my brothers definition of fun would be reading books and I really don't know if I'm in the mood for that after five days of school."

"Reading books is fun" Alec protested and Magnus couldn't help but notice that the little pout on his face looked extremely adorable. Adorable in a totally platonic way of course. 'You want to be his friend, nothing more' he reminded himself strictly and tried his best to ignore the other voice inside his head that screamed the opposite.


	12. Chapter 12

Pov Alec 

Annoyingly, the rest of the school day seemed to last forever. At some point Alec was almost certain that the teachers had somehow manipulated the clocks in the classrooms cause the hands were definitely moving a lot more slowly than they had been at the beginning of the week. Everytime he checked how late it was only a few seconds had passed. It was torture. Suddenly he really missed Jace and his annoying urge to talk during the lesson cause maybe that could have distracted him a little bit but unfortunately they didn't have the last course together today. Also Jace was still a little bit mad with him for what Alec had done during maths.

As soon as the bell was finally ringing Alec immediately jumped off his chair. On his way outside he met his siblings on the corridor and joined them quickly.

"Oh there you are. We were just looking for you" Izzy said. "I can't even describe how glad I am that the weekend is finally here. The last lessons on Friday are always the worst."

"Yeah especially when your brother makes you look like a fool in front of the entire class" Jace grumbled. 

"Come on you know that I was just trying to help you and I already apologized" Alec defended himself. 

First Jace didn't react to his words but eventually he gave in with a sigh and chuckled: "I hope you know that I'm going to pay you back for that."

"Oh really?" Alec grinned. 

"Don't grin like that I'm totally serious!" Jace said but his laugh didn't really make his threat sound very convincing. 

They were just about to leave the school building when suddenly Clary appeared right in front of them. Alec frowned in confusion but he didn't say anything. She probably just wanted to say goodbye to Jace or something like that. Remembering what Izzy had said a few days ago Alec wanted to give the two of them some private space but surprisingly Clary grabbed his arm and stopped him from leaving. 

"Wait" she said. "Please don't go. There’s something I wanted to ask you guys - all of you."  
Now Alec was totally confused. He and Clary hadn't exactly talked much with each other until now and he really couldn't imagine what on earth she could possibly want from him ... 

\----------------------------------

'Well … that has definitely been unexpected' Alec thought when he was sitting on a blanket in the park together with Simon, Clary, Aline, Magnus and his siblings about half an hour later. He couldn't remember having done anything like that before and he couldn't deny that he kinda liked it.

Back on their school in New York Alec hadn't had many friends. Sure, there had been some people who talked to him occasionally but Alec knew that they actually hadn't cared about him at all. Most of them had just approached him because they wanted to copy his homework or needed help with learning.   
The others had just been talking to him out of pity and because they felt bad about him having no friends. 

Therefore Alec wasn't really used to people talking to him without wanting him to do something for them and he definitely wasn't used to people wanting wanted to spend time together with him either.  
Normally people tended to just accept Alec as a rather unimportant appendage of his siblings, as the weird person who was with them most of the time but wasn't any fun to talk to so they simply ignored him. 

Clary and her friends were different though. They actually seemed to like him as an individual person and if Alec was being honest he couldn't really understand why. He was pretty boring actually and sometimes also a little bit rude but still Clary had insisted that he joined them as well. 

Being part of such a huge group of people was something Alec never would have thought could possibly happen to him. He had thought that he would always be just a freak, an outsider nobody understood, but these people didn't make him feel that way at all. 

Even though he only knew them for a few days Alec already liked them very much. At the beginning he had thought that moving here wouldn't be a good thing at all but slowly he started to realize that he was actually very grateful for it. He liked it here.

"Hey, Alec!"

"Uh what?" Alec asked, only realising now that apparently Clary had been trying to talk to him for quite some time now. He should probably stop daydreaming and pay more attention to what was going on around him.

Clary chuckled. "I asked you if you want to join the group chat as well" she said and pointed at her phone. 

Alec frowned in confusion. "What group chat?" 

"A Whatsapp group" Aline explained to him. She was sitting next to Alec and was eating from the grapes Clary had brought. "Clary, Si, Magnus and I created the chat about one and a half years ago. Your siblings joined already so there's only you left."

"Oh okay. If you want me to join … " 

"Of course we do" Magnus said. "You're part of our little family now whether you like it or not." He smiled at him and Alec hoped that he wasn't blushing again. Hearing Magnus say this made him extremely happy. 

"Okay I'm going to add you then" Clary said. "Izzy just sended me your contact."

"Hey I also could have done this myself" Alec complained but his sister just raised her eyebrows in response. "As if" she said. "You know that I love you Alec but you have no idea how to use social media."

"Yeah you're like one of these old people who bought a smartphone just to stay in contact with their grandchildren but they don't know how to use it at all and are hopelessly overwhelmed with everything" Jace agreed with her and giggled. 

"Shut up" Alec mumbled embarrassed but he knew that his siblings were right. He actually barely used his smartphone at all because he didn't have any social contacts outside his family anyways. 

"No need to feel bad about that" Magnus said. "Clary also called me a grandpa just a few minutes ago so you're not alone."

"Really?" Simon asked and laughed. "I guess then you two are really made for each other."

Now Alec was definitely blushing. He quickly looked down at his hands so he wouldn't see the expression on Magnus's face and wished once again that he wouldn't be so damn obvious about his feelings all the time. Magnus had surely realized it by now and he just hadn't said anything about it because he didn't want to hurt him …

For a few seconds nobody said a word but then Jace luckily saved the situation: "Oh look over there - the ping-pong table is free now!" he exclaimed and leaped up to his feet. 

Alec knew that his brother had been wanting to play at the table since he had first seen it when they arrived in the park but there had always been other people using it so Jace hadn't found a chance to do so until now.

"Oh great" Simon said excited and stood up as well. "I would love to play. You did bring the paddles, right Fray?" He looked concerned for a moment.

"Yeah sure. I even brought four of them" Clary said with a laugh. "And a ball."

Simon beamed. "Awesome!"

"Yeah then we can play in teams of two. That's way more fun. So who's in?" Jace asked and looked at them. Alec couldn't really believe it but apparently his brother and Simon actually came along pretty well. He definitely wouldn't have expected this.

"I think I'm going to stay here and draw a bit" Clary said. "I don’t know why but I feel very inspired today."

"Yeah I'm also not in the mood for sport right now" Aline agreed with her.

"Well but I am" Izzy said and grabbed one of the paddles. "I have to support my brother after all." 

Jace grinned proudly. "That's the spirit, little sister."  
Izzy hit his arm and held her paddle front of his face in a threatening gesture. "Call me little again and I'll be playing against you." 

"Ouch. Okay, okay calm down." Jace laughed and raised his hands in surrender. 

"So we need one more person then … " Simon left the sentence unfinished and looked at Magnus. First he rolled his eyes but then he gave in with a little grin on his lips and also grabbed a paddle.

While the three boys and Izzy walked over to the ping-pong table Clary pulled out her sketchbook and a pencil case. 

"Wow you're really good" Alec said when he caught a glimpse of some of her drawings while Clary was turning the pages in her book.

"Thank you." Clary smiled at him. "I have loved drawing since I was a child … but I also really like dancing and acting. What about you? What are your hobbies?"

"Oh … uh … I like reading I guess. And doing sports." Alec shrugged. "And I'm like the worst dancer ever."

"Same" Aline said. "I can't dance at all." She looked at Clary. "Maybe you should give us all some lessons before the school dance." 

"Oh I would love to but unfortunately I'm very bad at teaching others. When I dance every move kinda happens automatically, out of the feeling, and I don't even know what I'm doing most of the time." Clary laughed. "But I do have a very good friend who's an amazing dancer as well. Maybe I can convince him to help you." 

Aline grinned. Apparently she knew exactly who Clary was talking about. Alec didn't.

"I probably don't know that guy or do I?" he asked.

"Oh no you definitely do. You have just been talking to him a few minutes ago."

First Alec was confused about Clary's statement but then it suddenly hit him: she was talking about Magnus. Magnus was a dancer. And a rather good one apparently. 

Alec swallowed nervously. 'Sure why not?' he thought. 'It's not like he was already hot enough before I knew that.' 

"Hey are you okay?" Aline asked. 

"Yeah sure." Alec realized that his voice sounded pretty weird and he hastily cleared his throat. "I think I'm going to read something now." 

He always carried a book in his school bag just in case one of his courses got cancelled and he felt bored while he was waiting for the next one to start so luckily he had something he could distract himself with now. Or at least he thought he could do so but in reality his plan didn't work out quite well. Clary was busy drawing and Aline wrote something on her phone while Alec was staring at the page in front of him and tried to read the same sentence for the tenth time now. He just couldn't concentrate no matter how hard he tried and it was really frustrating. He wished Clary hadn't told him about the dancing thing cause now he just couldn't get those pictures of Magnus out of his head again and it was driving him insane.

After a few more minutes of trying to read on but failing miserably Alec eventually gave up and decided to just watch the others playing instead. He didn't want to be too obvious though so he hid most of his face behind his book and pretended that he was still reading while in reality his eyes were on Magnus almost the entire time. 

His hair, which was normally always perfectly styled, was a little bit disheveled by now and a few black strands were falling over his forehead in a very sexy way. But what was even more attractive to Alec was the way he was moving, so elegant and graceful and just completely different than Jace or Simon did. Magnus was very quick as well and his reflexes were perfect so he almost never missed a ball.   
Jace and Izzy however were no pushovers either. Simon was a little bit more clumsy than the others but still good cause he played with great enthusiasm and lots of passion.

The game between the four of them was actually very exciting to watch and even though Alec's main focus was on Magnus he also tried to pay attention to the others as well. 

The game went on until both teams were in a tie.  
"Next point wins" Jace said and judging by the smug grin on his face he was already certain of their victory. 

"Well then … bring it on" Magnus said unimpressed and gave him a challenging look. 

Alec swallowed. Being competitive definitely was a very good look on him. Okay actually everything was a very good look on Magnus but still ...

Jace hit the ball and thereby opened the last round. For about half a minute the ball went back and forth between them the four of them without anybody making a mistake but then suddenly something very unexpected happened. It was Simon’s turn and he hit the ball so quickly that Jace didn't have enough time to react and couldn't catch it. He missed his goal by a hair's breadth and the ball landed in the grass instead.

"Damn it!" he cursed and brushed his hair out of his face. "Where the hell did this suddenly come from?" 

Simon just stared at him in shock. Apparently he was just as surprised as the others. Izzy and Magnus both looked impressed.

For a moment there was complete silence then Simon slowly seemed to understand what had just happened. "Holy crap did you just see that?" he asked and looked at his paddle like it had magic abilities. "I did it. Oh my god Magnus we won!"   
Simon started cheering and jumped up and down like a little child in excitement. "Hah, take that. The victory is ours!"

"I never would have thought that I would ever say this to you but Sheldon … I love you" Magnus said, then he just grabbed Simon and pressed an enthusiastic kiss on his cheek. 

Judging by the dumbfounded expression on his face Simon had definitely not seen this coming. He blushed slightly and Izzy giggled. 

Alec however couldn't help but be jealous. He couldn't believe that he was actually thinking this but at the moment he really wished he was Simon. On the other hand … if Magnus would kiss him like that he would probably have a heart attack so maybe it was better this way.

"That's not fair" Jace complained. "I was just blinded by the sun. Otherwise this wouldn't have happened."

"Yeah sure" Izzy said and chuckled. In contrast to Jace she didn't seem to be very upset about losing the game. She even went over and congratulated the others. When she was shaking Simons hand his cheeks turned even redder and Alec couldn't help but wonder how he would react if she would kiss him as well. 

Eventually Jace also pulled himself together and gave Simon a short nod to acknowledge his victory. 

"Good job" he said and Simon beamed. 

"Thank you."

"I don’t know how about you guys but I have to drink something now. I'm dying of thirst" Izzy said.  
The others agreed with him and they all came over to Alec and the girls. 

"Hi" Magnus said a little bit breathless when he was standing in front of them and ran his fingers through his hair so Alec could see how the muscles of his upper arm were bulging underneath the fabric of his shirt.

His brain stopped working for a second and he accidentally dropped his book. Quickly he picked it up again and hoped that Magnus hadn't seen it.

"Hey did you see that Fray?" Simon asked Clary excited. "I really don't know how I did this but I won."  
Clary nodded and laughed.

"Actually we won together" Magnus corrected.

"Yeah that's true. You were amazing." 

Magnus looked at Alec and grinned. "I thought you were reading. I didn't know that you also payed attention to the game." 

Oh fuck. Had he really said the other thing out loud? Alec blushed deeply. 

"I … uh … I wasn't watching all of it. Just a little bit" he mumbled. 

"Well I am flattered" Magnus said and Alec didn't know where to look. 

In the background he could still hear Simon talking to Clary but he didn't pay attention to what he was saying any longer. His mind was focused on Magnus now and when he suddenly sat down right next to him Alec’s heart skipped a beat.

"Hey can somebody please pass me one of the water bottles?" Magnus asked. "I can't reach them from here."

Alec reacted immediately and grabbed one of them, giving it to Magnus.

"Thank you" he said and when he took the bottle his fingers brushed Alec’s. Even though the touch only lasted for a second Alec could feel it in every fiber of his body and he quickly pulled his hand back again, shocked about the intensity of the feeling. 

He had never felt anything like that before and if he was being honest he thought that it was almost a little bit scary. How was it possible that a simple touch could make him feel so many things? It was totally crazy but yet Alec also liked it somehow ...

Pov Magnus 

Magnus couldn't believe it. Simon had just won the game for them. Jace hadn't been able to reach the ball in time and now they had won. 

It wasn't like Simon was bad at playing ping-pong but he had been kinda distracted today and because of that Magnus hadn't expected something like this to happen at all. He felt euphoric and happy about the victory but he was also pretty exhausted at this point so he was very relieved when they were walking back to the blanket in order to drink something. His throat was completely dry and he definitely needed some cold water now.

"Hi" he said and tried to sound as unaffected by the physical activity as he could but in reality his heart was still beating way too fast. He should really work out more. Magnus definitely wasn't unathletic - rather the opposite - but he hadn't done much in the last few month and he could definitely feel it.

"Hey did you see that Fray? I really don't know how I did this but I won" Simon told his best friend proudly and beamed like a child at christmas day.

"Actually we won together" Magnus felt the urge to add cause he had been doing lots of work too after all. His racing heartbeat was the best proof of that.

"Yeah that's true. You were amazing" somebody said but to Magnus's surprise it wasn't Simon who was talking but Alec. He hadn't even thought that Alec had noticed him since he seemed to be reading but apparently he had been wrong.

He grinned a bit. "I thought you were reading. I didn't know that you also payed attention to the game." 

"I … uh … I wasn't watching all of it. Just a little bit" Alec said. 

"Well I am flattered." Magnus said and sat down next to him. Close but not too close cause he would probably be tempted to touch him then and he definitely couldn't do that. 

He asked for a water bottle and Alec gave him one. For a second their fingers were brushing and Magnus felt a faint tingle in his stomach but unfortunately Alec immediately pulled his hand back again. 

"So what are you reading there?" Magnus asked, pushing his feelings aside, and leaned over a bit so he could see the cover of Alec’s book. He immediately recognised that it was the first volume of 'Harry Potter'. 

"Harry Potter, huh?" 

"Yeah. I already read the books like a million times but still they never cease to amaze me. I don’t know how to describe it but I feel like there's something magical about them" Alec explained and blushed a bit. "I mean there's this totally different world with so many amazing and fascinating things and when you read about it it feels like you're actually a part of it. That's really … impressive." 

Magnus bit his lip. He wondered how Alec would react if he found out that such a world really existed. Not that he was planning on telling him yet (it was way too early for that and it would probably just scare him off at the moment) but maybe he could test the waters a little bit. 

"What if it was real?" he asked.

Alec frowned and gave him a slightly confused look. "What do you mean?"

"All this." Magnus pointed at the book in Alec’s hands. "What if all the magical creatures from those books really existed? You said you feel like you're a part of this world when you're reading about it but what if you had the chance to really see something like that in real life? Would you want that or not?"  
Tensely Magnus waited for an answer.

"Oh ...that's a tough question" Alec said and thought for a moment. "I think a big part of what makes these stories so fascinating and special to me is that they are not real, that they only exist in books. I mean I love reading about it but in reality … I'm not sure if I wanted to live in such a world. When I imagine it it's all fascinating and colorful you know but I think that in reality it wouldn't be like that. There are so many dangers and bad creatures in those books and if I am being honest I think that all this would probably be too much for me to handle. Unfortunately I'm not as brave as all those book characters are." 

Magnus felt his heart breaking a little bit when he heard those words. 'Too much for me.' It was exactly what he had expected Alec to say but still having it confirmed hurt him more than he would have thought.

Of course it wasn't Alec’s fault. It wasn't his fault at all. Magnus could definitely understand why he was thinking like that. He couldn't know that the question had not been as theoretical as it might seem but his answer had definitely been honest which meant that Magnus could never tell him. He could never tell him who he really was and open up to him completely. 

It was crazy because he only knew Alec for a week but somehow this boy had already managed to gain his trust. Magnus trusted him enough that he had already been considering to tell him everything about who he was (again maybe not quite yet but at some point in the near future) and this was something that actually shocked him quite a lot. For many years now Magnus had never told any non-downworlder who he was but with Alec it was different somehow. All Magnus had to do was looking into his beautiful hazel eyes and that was already enough to make him want to spill his heart out to him right away.  
But he couldn't do that. 

"I understand" he said eventually and smiled sadly.   
Alec immediately looked concerned. "Did I say something wrong?" 

Magnus quickly shook his head. "No, of course not. I mean obviously this was just a hypothetical question so how could you say something wrong?"

"Yeah you're right. You just looked so … I don’t know how to describe it … but I was probably just imagining things anyways." Alec laughed about himself and shook his head. "So you're alright?" 

"Yes I am" Magnus assured him. "And I think that you are much braver than you think you are."

Alec looked surprised. "Really? Why do you think so?"

Magnus shrugged. "I don’t know. It's just a feeling" he said and made the mistake to look into Alec’s eyes for too long. 

Alec stared back at him and Magnus could feel himself falling. He wanted to turn away but he wasn’t able to break to connection between them because he was already hopelessly lost inside those deep hazel eyes in front of him.

Magnus swallowed and was just about to open his mouth in order to say something when Alec suddenly winced and started cursing. He broke the eye contact between them and looked down instead. It took a moment until Magnus woke up from his trance like state and realized what was happening around him.

Apparently Simon had accidentally spilt some of his water on Alec’s pants and was now having one of his typical panic attacks. "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry I didn't mean to do that. I really don't know how this happened. Wait let me do this …"

Alec looked like he was about to protest but before he had the chance to do so Simon had already grabbed one of the colored napkins Clary had brought in her basket and started rubbing at the wet spot on Alec’s knee but the only result was that a few red stains came onto the fabric as well.

"Oh shit I'm so sorry. I think I just made it even worse" Simon stammered and Alec quickly pushed his hand away so he couldn't do any more damage.

"It's okay. Really. No problem" he said while Jace was giggling in the background. Aline also seemed to be fairly amused.

"You do know that water spots actually dry by themselves in the sun, right? And that those stains from the napkin you just added are almost impossible to get out of the fabric again?" she asked. 

Simon blushed deeply and ran his fingers through his hair. "Yeah uh … that's right. I was maybe panicking a little bit so I forgot about it." He looked at Alec with a guilty expression on his face. "I could give you money to buy a new pair of jeans" he offered. "If the stains really don't go away again. I could totally do that, it's no problem at all …" 

"Simon, stop, okay?" Alec eventually interrupted his nervous chatter. "It's no big deal. I have enough other pants at home."

"Oh uh … okay." Simon seemed relieved.

In this moment Magnus's phone started ringing. 

"Oh no" he said when he saw who it was and sighed dramatically. He really didn't want to talk to Ragnor right now. Without thinking twice he declined the call and put his phone back into the pocket of his pants. If Ragnor wanted to tell him something he could also wait until he was home again, right? 

But of course his friend didn't give up that easily. After Magnus hadn't picked up his call he almost instantly started spamming him with messages. 

"Uhm Magnus I think there's somebody who needs to talk to you very badly" Izzy said after a 'bling' announced the twentieth message within two minutes. 

"But I don’t want to talk to him" Magnus whined. 

"Maybe it's important" Alec said. "I think he wouldn't be so stubborn otherwise."

"Hah." Magnus gave a laugh. "You don't know this guy. Annoying me is one of his hobbies. He's just trying to get me to … oh fuck" 

Magnus had just unlocked his phone in order to tell Ragnor to stop bothering him when he saw his messages on the screen: 

'Why don't you pick up your phone??? I need you to come immediately. Somebody just sent you a fire message.' 

'Stop ignoring me Magnus I'm not kidding!' 

'It's from a vampire I think. Says something about a fledgling and that he wants to talk to you.'

'Magnus!!' 

'Answer me for gods sake!'

'I'm going to keep writing you until you answer me!'

Damn it. Alec had been right. This really was important. The fire message was obviously from Lily. Magnus couldn't believe that the newborn vampire actually wanted to talk to him now. He hadn't exactly been very chatty after this transformation and they had already thought that he would never open his mouth but apparently things had changed. 

Magnus needed to go to the Blackwell house immediately. He had made the decision to bring this poor boy back to life so he was also responsible for him and needed to help him as much as he could. 

"What happened?" Clary asked concerned. "Bad news?"

Magnus raised his head and looked at her. "No it's nothing bad but unfortunately I can't stay any longer. There’s something I need to take care of and it seems like it can't wait" he apologized. He really would have loved to stay longer and spend some more time with the others but at the moment this was more important. 

"Oh okay. If it's important you should go of course."

"Right." Magnus stood up. "Thanks for inviting me by the way. It was great to hang out with you all." 

He smiled at them and said goodbye, then he quickly walked home. Of course he would have preferred to just create a portal straight away but unfortunately he couldn't do that in public so he had to go back to his house first. Luckily he lived just at the other end of the road so it didn't take him very long until he arrived there.

Ragnor immediately started to ask him curious questions. "Who is that vampire and who's the fledgling they were talking about?" 

"That's a long story" Magnus answered brusquely. "And thanks a lot for reading my messages by the way. Have you ever heard of the term private sphere?" 

Ragnor shrugged unimpressed. "I just wanted to check if this person was sending you something inappropriate."

"Wow I'm flattered that you are so concerned about me" Magnus said sarcastically and opened a portal. "If you don't mind - I have to go now."

"Wait!" Ragnor said and grabbed his arm, stopping him in the middle of the movement. "I'm going to come with you." 

"What? But … duh whatever." Magnus rolled his eyes. He really wasn't in the mood for arguing now. "But don't go on my nerves while we're there."

"I promise."

Magnus highly doubted that his friend would be able to keep this promise but he decided to give him a chance. Without any further ado he grabbed him by his sleeve and they walked through the portal together.

At the other end Lily was already waiting for them. She was sitting on the red sofa where the body of the boy had been lying the last time Magnus had been here and stood up quickly when he and Ragnor popped into the room right in front of her.   
"Magnus" she said. And then: "Oh you brought somebody."

"Yes he's like an ugly pimple on my back I just can't get rid off. But he promised me to not make any trouble while we're here."

"What a lovely way to introduce me to strangers. I really can't understand why people say you're charming" Ragnor said with a snort. 

Magnus ignored him. "Where's the boy?" he asked.

"I'm here" a dark voice answered behind his back and Magnus turned around. The black haired boy was standing at the other end of the room and leaned against frame of an old piano. His fingers were absentmindedly brushing over the keys but the touch was so light that it didn't make a sound.

Magnus had to say that he was quite surprised about the boys appearance. He last time he had seen him he had looked so young and weak but now he looked completely different. His face still looked as young as before but the serious expression on it made him look like he was at least eight years older. Also his voice was unusually deep for the voice of a child. 

"I'm Raphael by the way. Raphael Santiago."

Raphael. Finally Magnus knew his name.  
He smiled. "It's a pleasure seeing you again, Raphael. I'm Magnus." 

"And I'm Ragnor. Not that anybody would care…"

Magnus gave his friend an annoyed look.

"Alright, alright, I'm going to shut up. I don’t have any idea what's going on anyways. I'm just going to stand here and watch whatever this is."

"Please just ignore him" Magnus said to Raphael. "I heard you wanted to talk to me but first I want to say something as well. You know that I am the one who is responsible for turning you into a vampire and I can totally understand if you hate me for this. It wasn't my decision to make and I'm sorry. But I just couldn't let you die."

Tensley Magnus waited for Raphaels reaction.

"It's okay" he said after a few seconds of silence. His voice sounded pretty emotionless but not mad or reproachful. "I mean I was very angry at first and disgusted about myself when I realized what I had become, but by now I came to the conclusion that I should actually be grateful for what you did."

Grateful? Now Magnus was totally confused. "Wait what?" he asked dumbfounded. "Sorry but I don’t understand."

"If what Lily told me is correct I would be dead now if you hadn't decided to bring me back. Being like this is far from perfect but it's still better than not being alive at all" Raphael answered. "When I ran into this stupid house here I wasn't able to think straight because I was still so angry because of my brothers death. I got myself into danger without thinking about possible consequences for me or anybody else. I do not have much family left but I still have my grandmother and if I would have died … " He stopped in mid-sentence and narrowed his eyes before he eventually continued talking: "It would have broken her heart. She is still devastated about my brothers death and I need to be there for her. If you wouldn't have brought me back I never could have seen her again and she probably would have died of sorrow … so thank you." 

With those words he raised his head again and looked Magnus straight in the eyes. Magnus didn't know how to react or what to say. He had expected a lot - that the boy would scream at him or tell him that he hated him but that he would be thanking him for what he had done hadn't crossed his mind for a second. 

"Wow you're actually speechless. Never thought I'd see the day" Ragnor chuckled. 

Magnus rolled his eyes at him. "Very funny. Don't you have something to do? Go and make friends with some of the vampires here. I'm sure they're going to love you."

"No I'd rather stay here, thanks" Ragnor said with a grin on his face and sat down on the sofa like he was just about to watch a very exciting movie.

Magnus sighed in resignation and turned back to Raphael. "I'm glad that you're not angry at me but what is it you wanted to talk about?" he asked.

"It’s about my necklace." He pulled a little box out of the pocket of his jeans. Magnus recognised it immediately. After Raphael had turned he had conjured it and put his necklace inside. "I want to be able to wear it again. It really means a lot to me and I thought you could maybe help me."

He looked at Magnus who didn't know what to answer. 

"That's a very long and hard process" he said eventually. "I'm not sure if …"

"I'm willing to do it. No matter what. No matter how painful it might be" Raphael interrupted him and his voice sounded very determined. "Lily won't help me cause she thinks I'm crazy but I thought you would maybe understand. I thought you would help me."

Magnus wasn't exactly sure whether this was a good idea but in the end he just couldn't say no. 

"Of course" he said and smiled slightly. "Of course I'm going to help you."


	13. Chapter 13

Pov Alec 

Alec couldn't help but feel a dash of sadness when Magnus told them that he had to leave. He would have loved to hang out with him just a little bit longer but apparently there was something rather important he had to do and of course Alec couldn't blame him for that. 

After he was gone Alec wasn't in the mood for reading any longer so he put his book away and joined the conversation of the others.

He quickly realized that Aline seemed to be a little bit absent-minded. She wasn’t talking very much and glanced on the screen of her phone every two minutes. Also she seemed to be slightly tense. Apparently she was waiting for something and Alec couldn't help but wonder what it might be. He was just about to ask her when Aline suddenly gasped loudly and made all the others look at her with a mixture of amusement and concern on their faces.

"What’s happening?" Alec asked. "You look like you're about to have a heart attack."

"That's … oh my god I can't believe this … " Aline stammered. "She just wrote me a message."

Alec, Clary, Simon and Izzy knew immediately who she was talking about and started cheering but Jace obviously didn't have any clue what was going on. He looked so confused and weirded out by the behaviour of the others that it was almost a little bit funny.

"What? Wait who are we talking about here? What’s going on?" he asked.

"Helen Blackthorn" Aline said slowly. She still looked at her phone as if she couldn't believe her eyes. "Were talking about Helen Blackthorn. A girl from our school."

Jace looked even more confused now. "And why are you all freaking out because she wrote you a message?" 

Now everybody was staring at him instead of Aline. 

"You seriously don't know about this yet?" Simon asked. 

"Well obviously not. I wouldn't be asking if I knew." 

"I … uh … I kinda have a crush on her" Aline explained and blushed slightly. 

"For quite a long time already" Clary added. 

Now Jace didn't look confused any longer. "Oh. Okay." 

"But there's one thing I don’t understand" Clary continued. "Since when does she have your phone number?"

"Yeah right. When did that happen?" Simon gave Aline a curious look.

"Actually it happened today in school, just a few hours ago" she told them. "There’s a list at the bulletin board in the hallway which you have to sign if you want to earn some money by giving other students tutoring lessons. You have to write down your name, in which grade level you are, what subjects you want to give tutoring in and your phone number. I had just finished writing everything down when she was suddenly standing right behind me. She said that her little sister needed tutoring in one of the subjects I wrote down on the list and then she asked if I would be interested in doing it. Of course I said yes. We immediately arranged the finer details but in the end she still saved my phone number in case there's a change of plans or something like that. I didn't think that she would write me a message just like that … I mean I hoped so but I wasn't really expecting it. That's why I haven't told you about it yet. I thought she just wanted my number because of the tutoring lessons for her sister but that message she just send me doesn't have anything to with that at all and I don't know what to answer." 

"Well what did she write?" Izzy asked and leaned over to Aline so she could take a look on the screen of her phone. "Maybe we can help you." 

Alec couldn't deny that he was pretty curious about this as well so he also took a quick glance at Alines phone: 'Hi. It was really nice getting to know you. You seem very … sympathetic ;) I'm sure you're going to be a great tutor' Helens message said. 

Alec smiled. That really didn't sound as if Helen had just saved her number because of the tutoring lessons for her sister. Izzy seemed to think the same thing: "Oh my gosh she's totally flirting with you!" she squealed and she sounded so excited that it was almost cute. 

Aline however didn’t really seem to be convinced by that. "Really?" she asked doubtfully, but Alec could see that in her eyes was a small glimmer of hope. 

"Yes I'm almost one hundred percent sure." 

"Oh my god" Aline mumbled overwhelmed. "Fuck this is really happening … what should I do?" She looked like she was about to panic but luckily Izzy had the situation under control: "Wait let me help you" she interrupted her and grabbed her phone. "We're going to get you a date with the woman of your dreams now." 

Aline's jaw dropped. "You can really do that?" she croaked.

"Definitely" Izzy answered and gave her a confident grin before she eventually started typing. 

\-----------------------

"And? What did she say?" Alec asked a few minutes later. Izzy had been writing back and forth with Helen for quite some time now (of course she didn’t say anything Aline didn't approve of) and now she had finally asked her if she maybe wanted to meet up at some point in the future. Alec really hoped that Helen would say yes. He didn't want Aline to be heartbroken. She deserved to be happy. 

"Please don't tell me, I don’t want to know it" Aline whined and covered her ears with her hands. "She's totally going to reject me."

"She's still typing" Izzy said and then, a few seconds later: "Oh my god she answered!! Aline she says yes!!"

"WHAT? You're kidding me right?" Aline immediately grabbed her phone and stared at the screen with wide eyes. "She really said yes!"

"Wow that's amazing! What did she write?" Simon wanted to know. 

"Thought you’d never ask. Where do you want to go? I'm open for suggestions" Aline read out loud and her face was glowing with happiness. 

"Awww honey I'm so happy for you" Clary said and hugged her. 

"Yeah congrats." Jace grinned at her while Izzy in the meantime was smirking complacently. "I told you I was going to get you a date."

"Yes you did … Gosh I love you!" Aline exclaimed and hugged her tempestuously.

Izzy looked flattered. "Awww thanks" she chuckled.

"Gosh I'm so excited. I have to plan everything and I have to think about what to wear … I totally have to go shopping tomorrow. I definitely need something new."

Alec saw that his sisters eyes immediately lit up when Aline mentioned the word shopping and he couldn't hide a smile. Izzy had always loved shopping. "Oh my god yes, please let me come with you" she begged now. "I really want to buy some new shoes." 

"Of course you can come along. I would love that" Aline said happily. "Also you have a great style and I could definitely use some advice from you." 

"Great." Izzy beamed. "I would love to help you with your outfit. But if you should need advice about relationships at some point in the future I'm definitely the wrong person to ask. I'm absolutely horrible with things like that."

Simon gave a laugh. "I definitely know the feeling" he said. "Everytime I had something like a relationship it magnificently imploded like the death star. At this point I really don’t know if this whole love thing is really for me … " He paused for a moment, then he seemed to have an idea. "You know what? Let's make a pact - single for life." 

He put out his hand for making a pinkie swear.

"Okay, I'm in" Izzy said, fairly amused. She interlaced her pinkie finger with Simon’s and they grinned at each other. 

'Would be quite funny if they would fall for each other now' it shot through Alec's head. He didn't know where this thought suddenly came from but he knew that it was ridiculous. Izzy and Simon would never become a thing … at least he couldn't imagine it. 

"Hey guys how about we go shopping right now?" Aline asked suddenly. "We all together. I mean we don't have to of course but I just remembered that I'm actually quite busy tomorrow and right now we all have time." 

"I don’t have anything against it" Clary said with a shrug and Simon agreed with her. Izzy of course was on fire and to Alec’s surprise Jace also didn't seem to have something against it. He knew exactly that his brother hated shopping just as much as he did but he probably wanted to impress Clary or something like that. 

"Alec what about you?" he asked eventually and all eyes were on him now. Alec felt slightly uncomfortable about standing in the center of attention like that but he tried his best to ignore it.

"No offence but I think I'm going to go home then. Shopping malls are always giving me a headache and also I really don’t want to run around with my pants looking like that." He gestured at the red strains on the fabric and hoped that the others wouldn't be upset about his answer.

Luckily that didn't seem to be the case: "Okay that's a good point" Aline admitted. "We don't have to go now if you…"

"No, no, it's okay, really" Alec interrupted her with a laugh. "Just go and have fun. I'm going to spend the evening with my little brother then. I'm sure he could use some company."

"That's true" Izzy said and Alec was very grateful for her support. 

"Okay then. It was really nice spending the day with you" Aline said with a smile and hugged him. "We're gonna see each other in school then." 

"Or on a tree maybe" Alec said jokingly. Aline laughed but of course the others didn't get the reference and looked very confused.

"It’s an inside joke" Aline quickly explained to them. 

"I already thought so" Jace said.

"Well anyway … thanks for joining us today" Clary said and also hugged Alec goodbye. 

"Thanks for inviting me" he answered and he really meant it. It didn't happen very often that he got invited by somebody so he really appreciated Clary's kindness. 

On his way home Alec was still smiling. It had been a great day so far and for the first time in a while he was really happy. Moving here had definitely been a good thing. 

When he arrived at their house Alec noticed that his mother's car wasn't there so he assumed that she was still gone. She had been very busy the entire week because she was planning to open her own insurance office and she was still trying to find the right place for it. 

'Good that I decided to go home already' he thought. Otherwise Max would've been alone the entire time. Of course he wasn't a baby anymore and he never really caused much trouble but still Alec couldn't help but be a little bit worried about him. 

The first thing he did after entering the house was calling for him but nobody answered.

Immediately Alec got concerned. 'Maybe he's just wearing his headphones again and can't hear you' he told himself while he was walking through the kitchen and into the living room, looking around searchingly. He had hoped to find Max there doing his homework or watching TV but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

'Then he's probably in his room' he thought. There weren't many other options left by now. 

Alec quickly climbed the stairs to the second floor and headed towards his brothers room. The door wasn't closed entirely and to his relief he could actually see Max inside. 

He was however very surprised by what he was currently doing and raised his eyebrows. Alec had thought that his brother would be sitting on his computer and play a game or something like that but instead Max was standing in front of the mirror and it looked like he was trying to put on eyeliner or however it was called. Also he could see Izzy’s Makeup accessories lying next to him on his desk.   
Alec just wanted to clear his throat or knock at the door in order to make Max aware of his presence but in the end it wasn't necessary cause Max saw his reflexion in the mirror and winced in shock, drawing a black line over half of his face.

He cursed quietly and quickly turned his face away so Alec couldn't see him.

"Sorry I just wanted to knock" Alec apologized. 

"It’s okay" Max said but he still wasn't looking at him. Instead he grabbed a tissue from his desk and tried to wipe the makeup on his face away but he only made it worse. "Damn it."

"Can I come in?" Alec asked carefully.

Max eventually gave up with a sigh and threw the tissue into the bin. "Yeah. I mean you have seen me anyways."

He turned around and his eyes met Alec’s. 

"I'm not an expert but I think this is not how it's done" Alec tried to lighten up the tension between them with a little joke but it didn't work quite well. 

"I was just playing around a bit" Max quickly tried to explain his actions. "Please don't tell mom about this. She isn't going to understand … " He looked panicked and it broke Alec’s heart to see him like that.

"Hey, calm down Max okay?" he said softly and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm not going to say anything."

Max seemed relieved. "Really?"

"Of course." Alec paused for a moment. "Do you like this? Wearing Makeup?" he asked. 

Max shrugged. "I don’t know. What if I did?" he asked back and looked up to him as if he was afraid of his answer. 

Alec smiled. "That's perfectly fine with me" he said. "I think men can wear makeup just like women. It really shouldn't be such a big deal." 

"Yeah right? I really don't understand why most people don't like this. I mean it's absolutely none of their business what I do!" Max agreed with him, now talking very passionately. "Just like my hair. I really like having it long but there are always people making stupid comments about it, saying that I look like a girl. And I think if I would start wearing makeup it would only get worse."

Alec definitely understood how his brother felt. He hated that he couldn't protect him from all that and he hated that he couldn't give him any good advice about what he should do in order to deal with his situation cause he really didn't know either. 

"Look I'm probably not the best person to give you advice in this situation but I think you should do what you are most comfortable with. Unfortunately there are always going to be some people that don't like what you're doing but this shouldn't stop you from being who you are. Just take your time and try to figure things out and then you decide what works best for you. Being yourself can be very hard and quite a risk in some cases … I definitely know that feeling ..." 

Max frowned, looking slightly confused. "What do you mean you know the feeling?" he interrupted Alec. 

"Oh. Uh … okay so actually I never really told this anyone before … at least not like that but ... I'm gay" Alec confessed. It felt weird saying those words out loud and really hearing them for the first time but it was also strangely satisfying.

Max looked slightly surprised, but not completely shocked. "Oh. Okay. Since when do you know?" he asked. Alec thought about the question for a moment. "I think it slowly started when I was about your age" he said eventually. 

"And nobody knows about this?"

Alec shrugged. "Not as far as I know. Izzy kinda does but I didn't tell her. She figured it out by herself I guess. And there's one girl from my school who knows it too but apart from that: no." He took a deep breath, before he continued: "So you see that we're actually in a very similar position. I also haven't found the guts to … you know… come out yet." He nervously rubbed his neck. "I actually don’t even think that I'm scared, not when it comes to people who are close to me, but it just feels so weird to me to announce something like that, if you understand what I mean. I don’t really see the necessity in it and it would just feel very awkward in my opinion. I mean if somebody asked me if I was gay I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't deny it but I think I shouldn't feel forced to go around and just tell everybody about it" Alec explained and sighed with relief as soon as the last sentence had left his mouth. It was crazy how good it felt to finally tell somebody about this. And judging by his facial expression Max seemed to know exactly what he was talking about.

"Yeah that's true" he said. "And also it would be totally funny to see mom's shocked face if you just brought a boy home some day without telling her about it before." 

He and Alec looked at each other and then started laughing. 

"So … uh … do you know how to remove this stuff again?" Max asked when they had calmed down again a little bit later and pointed at his face.

"Uh not really" Alec said. "But I think we're going to find a way." 

\-------------------------

After they had - more or less successfully - managed to wash off Max's eyeliner (which happened to be a lot harder than Alec had thought) they decided to watch a movie together.

Alec made popcorn and they sat down on the sofa in front of the television. 

First they couldn't decide what to watch but in the end they agreed on 'Pirates of the Caribbean' since it was a movie they both liked very much. Of course Alec didn't tell his brother but he had always had a little crush on Johnny Depp so he was very happy about seeing the movie again. 

"You know what?" Max said after they had been watching for about half an hour.

"What?" Alec asked slightly absent minded and without looking away from the screen.

"Captain Jack Sparrow somehow reminds me of Magnus."

Alec choked on his popcorn. Max was absolutely right. He couldn't believe that he hadn't seen that parallel earlier. Obviously he had a type.

"Oh my gosh" he mumbled and couldn't help but blush in embarrassment. 

Max frowned, clearly confused about his reaction. "Why are you blushing like that?"

"It's nothing" Alec lied and decided to quickly change the topic. "What do you think about Magnus by the way?"

Luckily Max went with it without asking any further questions. "I really like him" he said. "He's great. I mean he's nice, he's funny and I love his style. I think it's pretty impressive that he's wearing glittery clothes and makeup without giving a shit what others might think about it."

"Yes he really is very impressive …" Alec’s voice trailed of and he cleared his throat. 

"Do you … like him? I mean like like him?" His brother gave him a questioning look.

"What? No. Why would you think that?" 

"Cause it sounds like it" Max said with a huge grin on his face.

Now Alec was blushing even more. He grabbed one of the pillows which was lying next to him and slapped Max with it. "Stop asking me questions and watch the movie."

Max laughed and pushed Alec away. "Okay okay I won't ask any further." 

After they had finished the first movie it was pretty late already. Maryse was home again by now but she seemed pretty exhausted so she went to bed almost immediately. Jace and Izzy still weren't home yet but they had wrote Alec a message, saying that it would only take them a few more minutes.

Max didn't want to go to bed yet so he and Alec started watching a few episodes of 'Friends' while they were waiting for their siblings to come home again. 

When Alec looked over to his brother after the first episode however he saw that Max had already fallen asleep. The loud noises of the thunderstorm outside that had started a few minutes ago didn't seem to bother him at all but Alec wasn't really surprised about that. Max had always had a very deep sleep - as soon as he was gone it was almost impossible to wake him up again. 

Alec smiled and carefully placed a blanket on his brother. Then he turned off the television and leaned back in the sofa. He pulled out his smartphone and checked if there were any new messages from Izzy or Jace but it wasn't the case. He was a little bit concerned about them because of the storm which was going on and he was just about to call them when he heard the front door opening.

'Finally' he thought relieved and went into the hallway. 

Izzy and Jace were both soaking wet and Alec couldn't help but laugh when he saw them. "Gosh you two look hilarious" he giggled. "Wait let me take a picture." He quickly pulled out his smartphone and opened the front camera.

"Don't you dare-" Jace started but it was already done.

"Too late" Alec laughed and held the phone out of his brothers reach cause he was now trying to grab it. Jace cursed loudly but then a evil smirk was spreading on his face. 

"You know what?" he said. "I think I haven't even greeted you properly." And before Alec could make any sense of his words his brother had already pulled him into a tight hug, so Alec’s clothes were getting all wet as well.

"Ewww no please stop this!" Alec protested and tried to push Jace away but it was useless.

"No way. Not until you give Izzy the phone and let her delete the picture." 

"Ugh okay." Alec rolled his eyes and gave his phone to his sister. "You are such a spoilsport. Both of you."   
He pushed Jace away from him and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"But still you love us" Izzy said with a grin and gave him back his phone.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that" Alec said but he couldn't hide a little smile on his face. 

Pov Magnus 

The next morning started surprisingly peaceful.  
Ragnor wasn't there because he was meeting up with Elias - an old friend of theirs who was also a warlock - and for the first time in almost a week Magnus had his house all to himself again. 

After coming home from the Blackwell house yesterday he had been in his little private library up until the late evening and had been doing research about how exactly he could help Raphael. He knew that it was possible but he had never done anything like this before so he had to get more information about the whole process first. After a few hours his eyes had started to get very tired and eventually he had fallen asleep on the armchair he had been sitting on. It wasn't the first time that something like this had happened to Magnus - the armchair was so cosy that it was almost impossible to not fall asleep on it but nevertheless his body still wasn't used to it. Normally Magnus was sleeping in a lying position of course and even though the armchair was very comfortable sitting in it for hours had made his muscles tense so he spontaneously decided to take a bath, hoping that it would relax him a little bit.

He hadn't had a bath in ages and now that Ragnor wasn't there to interrupt him he just couldn't let the opportunity pass. He would take a little break and continue his research later in the afternoon. 

Cheerfully Magnus walked into the bathroom and turned on the water.

While the tub was slowly running full he got undressed and threw his clothes into the laundry basket. Then he took off his rings and bracelets and laid them down on the little console table to his right. When he was done the bathtub still wasn't full yet but he didn't want to wait any longer so Magnus just used his magic to speed things up and to add some foam to the water as well. 

"Perfect" he said satisfied and climbed into the tub.  
With a sigh he leaned back and closed his eyes. 

This was amazing. He should really do that more often. The hot water felt like heaven against his skin and relaxed his stiff muscles immediately. 

Magnus guessed that it wasn't just because of the rather unusual position he had been sleeping in but also because of the table tennis game with Blondie, Sheldon and Isabelle before that. He hadn't done much sport during the last few weeks and it definitely showed. But maybe it was also the stress. 

Now however he wasn't stressed at all. He felt great. After a few minutes of just lying there Magnus flicked his fingers and a cocktail appeared in his hand. In moments like that he really loved being a warlock.   
'Would be great if I could just let Alexander appear right here as well' he thought. 

Theoretically he could. But of course he would never honestly consider something like that. 

Still he was allowed to dream a bit wasn't he?  
Magnus sipped his cocktail and imagined how Alec would react if he was here with him right now. He was almost certain that his cheeks would be flushed and that he would be looking at him with a shy smile on his face. Magnus would be looking back at him and say something flirty, which would make the tension between them even more intense.

Alec would give him a longing look and then Magnus would slowly lean in and kiss him, his hands buried in his hair. The kiss would start out all soft and innocent but then it would get more heated and desperate and Alec would moan into his mouth.   
Then Magnus would slowly lean back and pull him on top of him so that their naked bodies were pressed against one another and he could feel …   
that he was getting hard. 

In reality.

Damn it. Magnus choked on his drink and silently cursed himself for not having his body under control any longer. Immediately he pushed the dirty thoughts out of his head again but unfortunately that didn't help to make his erection go away. Great. 

Magnus made the cocktail disappear again cause he knew that there was no other way of solving this problem as by using his hands. 

When he first touched himself a few moments later a shiver of pleasure run through his body and he couldn't hold back a little moan. Gosh it had been so long. Magnus couldn't even remember the last time he had had sex and this … normally he didn't do something like that quite often. But at this point he just had to. His body was basically begging him for release. It probably wouldn't even take very long considering how horny he was right now. 

Magnus slowly started moving his hand and bit his lip. Fuck. This would really be over embarrassingly fast. He tried very hard not to think of anything too specific while he was jerking himself off but the picture of Alec just kept coming back into his head again and again and at some point Magnus was too far lost in his pleasure to fight against it any longer so he just let it happen. He let the little fantasy in his head continue until he came hard and with Alec’s name on his lips.

After he was done Magnus was panting and he actually felt a little bit dizzy so he kept sitting in the water for another two minutes and gave his body some time to calm down again before he eventually got out of the tub. 

His legs were a little bit shaky due to the force of his orgasm and Magnus couldn't help but feel embarrassed about it. It was like he suddenly was a sexually repressed teenager or something like that.  
Magnus silently shook his head, then he grabbed a towel from the board next to the tub and dried himself off. 

He couldn't deny that he felt much better now. He was much more calm and relaxed but still he felt a little bit guilty about what he had done. Alec was so pure and innocent that his thoughts and actions seemed very inappropriate to him. 

However he tried his best to not think about it too much and finished to wipe himself dry instead. Just when Magnus was done and wrapped the towel around his waist he heard his phone vibrating on his bedside table. 

He rolled his eyes and groaned in annoyance. 'Please don't be Ragnor' he prayed silently as he walked into his room. 

Magnus grabbed the phone and was more than surprised when he saw that it was Alexander who had just been sending him a message. 

'Just when I was thinking about him' Magnus thought and blushed a little bit. Suddenly he was very glad that Alec couldn't see his face right now.

He opened the chat and looked at the two messages Alec had wrote to him:

'Um hi. This is Alec' said the first one and then the next one: 'Is this your phone number Magnus?' 

Magnus couldn't help but smile. If he could believe what his siblings had said Alec didn't seem to write messages quite often so he was more than happy that he had wrote to him. He honestly hadn't expected this.

'Yes it is. To what do I owe the pleasure?' he answered immediately. 

He saw that Alec was typing and it took about three minutes until he had finally finished: 'Okay … uh … this might sound a little bit weird now but your cat is in our kitchen.' 

Magnus frowned in confusion and read the sentence again, just to be sure if he had understood correctly and apparently he had. 

'Wait what? How did that happen?'

Again it took a little eternity till Alec’s answer came: 

'The window was open and I was cooking. Apparently the food smelled very good so your cat seized the opportunity and jumped into the room. I would bring him back to you but he doesn't look like he wants to leave so I don’t want to touch him and make him angry.' 

Magnus chuckled while he was writing his answer: 

'Omg. Sorry about that. I'm going to come over immediately and save you ;)'

'Thank you'

Magnus quickly got dressed and used his magic to put on his makeup cause there was no way he was going to show up to save a pretty boy like Alexander with a naked face. 

After that was done he rushed down the stairs and went over to the Lightwood's house. When he arrived Alec's little brother Max was already waiting for him at the door.

"Hi, Max. Is everything alright?" Magnus asked slightly breathless and came inside. 

"Well more or less" the little boy answered. "I mean your cat isn't really doing anything bad but I think Alec is having a panic attack." 

"Oh. That's not good. He's in the kitchen, right?"   
Max nodded and showed him the way.

When they entered the room Magnus was greeted by a rather amusing picture: Alec was standing in front of the stove plate with a cooking spoon in his hand and looked down at Chairman who was at his feet and nudged his leg with his head while meowing loudly. 

"Come on please stop this already. I told you that this is my food so leave me alone" Alec said and he sounded so desperate and overwhelmed by the situation that Magnus couldn't help but giggle.  
Alec raised his head and let out a sigh of relief when he saw him.

"Oh thank god" he said. "Please help me, Magnus. Your cat just won't stop doing this and when I try to move he's making these weird sounds … I think he wants to kill me or something like that." 

"Oh I really doubt that" Magnus said and quickly picked Chairman up. "He's a very peaceful cat. See, he's completely harmless." 

He tickled Chairman behind his ears, making him purr but Alec still looked very suspicious. 

"Are you afraid of cats?" Magnus asked. 

Alec shook his head. "What? No! I'm not afraid. I just respect their privacy so I don’t want to touch them or come too near to them."

"Yeah sure." Magnus chuckled then he realized that it really smelled very good in the kitchen. He wondered what Alec was cooking but whatever it was he was sure that it would taste absolutely amazing. "Actually I can't really blame Chairman for what he did. This really smells delicious" he said impressed.

Alec blushed and it was exactly that kind of blush Magnus had imagined earlier. It was adorable. "Thank you. It's almost done now."

"Do you want to stay over for dinner?" Max asked. "Mom and the others are not here by the way so it would only be you, me and Alec."

"Oh I would love to" Magnus said and looked over to Alec again, making sure that he was okay with it. For some reason he seemed to be surprised about Magnus's answer. 

"You really do?" he asked incredulously.

"Of course." Magnus smiled at him. "I've never been able to resist some good food."

Alec smiled back at him and he looked so happy that it made Magnus's heart melt. 

"Well okay then."

"I'm just going to bring Chairman home and then I'm going to come back immediately" Magnus said.

"Can I come with you?" Max asked. "I would really love to see your house."

Magnus gave Alec a questioning look.

"Yeah sure" he said with a shrug. "Just be back in ten minutes cause we're going to eat then."

"Okay."

Magnus walked back to his house and Max came along. It felt a little bit weird, letting a Lightwood enter his home but somehow Magnus was slowly getting used to their presence. Maybe he still wasn't exactly close with Maryse but her children were definitely really likeable. And apparently they seemed to like him as well. 

They wouldn't invite him over to dinner if that weren't the case, right?

It didn't take long until they arrived at the front door. Magnus let Alec’s brother go inside first and then followed him shortly afterwards. As soon as the door was closed Chairman immediately jumped from Magnus's arm and ran like hell. 

"So that's how you thank me for patting your head for the last five minutes?" Magnus yelled after him and rolled his eyes. "I love you too."

Max giggled a bit. "How many cats do you have in total?" he asked then and looked around in the hallway.

"Well that depends" Magnus said with a laugh. "At the moment it's only three: Chairman, Church and Sparkles but I also take care of many strays. I always feed them so they keep coming back."

"That's awesome" Max said. "I love animals … " He stopped talking but it seemed like there was something else he wanted to say. Judging by the way he was biting his lip Magnus assumed that he was maybe too shy to bring it up so he decided to help him a little bit.

"If you have any questions you can always ask me" he said with an encouraging smile. "Or if you want to tell me something I'll listen. But you don't have to if you're too uncomfortable with it." 

Max seemed a little surprised but also relieved that Magnus had realized his hesitation.

"I … uh … I really like your nail polish" he eventually said with a little blush on his face.

"Oh really? Thanks a lot." Magnus looked down at his own hands. "It's already peeling off though" he observed and wrinkled his nose.

He had put on the nail polish yesterday and apparently the bath had partly washed it off a little bit. Magnus was surprised that he hadn't realized this earlier. "I should probably fix this before we go back … wait a second." 

With that he quickly went upstairs to get his stuff. When he came back into the living room again Max was sitting on the sofa and waited for him.

"Sorry for that but this is really important" Magnus apologized and sat down next to Max, putting the little bottle with the nail polish on the coffee table in front of him. "You can look around here a bit while I'm busy. This shouldn't take too long … "

"Oh it's no problem" Max said and he wasn't showing any intention of standing up. "Actually I was wondering if you could maybe show me how this is done." 

Magnus winced. "Oh my god really?" he asked and almost knocked the still opened bottle of nail polish off the table in his excitement. "Do you want me to paint your nails for you?"

"If that's not too weird … " 

"Of course it's not. As soon as I'm done here I'm going to help you" Magnus said and quickly finished fixing his nails. When he was done he blew some air on them so they would dry faster and gave Max a questioning look. "Do you want the same color as I have or something more … plain?" he asked.

The nail polish he had used on his fingers was black most of all but there also was a lot of glitter in there and he thought that this would maybe be a little bit too much for Max. However it turned out that he didn't think so.

"No I want the same color" he insisted and Magnus beamed at him. 

For the next five minutes he was completely in his element and painted the young boys nails with great enthusiasm, telling him how it was done and what he should pay attention to, but then suddenly a strange feeling of sadness overcame him. He remembered that he would probably never have his own children. Magnus hadn't thought about this topic for a very long time now but somehow being with Max like that triggered something inside him; a feeling he hadn't even known was still there. 

Yes, he did have family and he was very grateful for that but this was something different. He tried to make himself believe that he didn't feel like that, that he didn't really need this, but deep inside Magnus had always been yearning. Yearning for having a solid partnership. Children. Maybe even being married … All those thoughts seemed incredibly naive to him, like something that could never possibly happen to him, but still the idea just wouldn't leave his head. 

Warlocks were infertile so becoming a father wasn't easy in the first place. Adoption was of course an opportunity but no matter what: it was still extremely difficult. Or at least that was what Magnus was telling himself. Deep down however he knew that he was just scared. He had never found the courage to try and, more importantly, he had never found the right person to do it with. 

Yes, he had been in love before but thinking about the future was something he had always been afraid of. He had never dared to take the family step into consideration because somehow it had never felt right with anybody and he was slowly but surely losing hope that he would ever experience this ...

"Hey Magnus are you alright?" Max asked suddenly.

Magnus quickly put a smile on his face and nodded. "Yes, sure. See, we're done" he said, deftly changing the subject and sat back in order to look at the result of his work. He was pretty satisfied with how the nails looked like and judging by his facial expression Max seemed to be thinking the same.

"Great. I love it." Max beamed at him. Apparently he hadn't realized that Magnus had been lying. "But I think we should probably go back now" he continued and stood up from the sofa. "Alec is probably already waiting for us. And again thank you for this. It looks incredible."

Magnus smiled softly. "There's no need to thank me. It was my pleasure."


	14. Chapter 14

POV Alec 

Alec tried very hard to suppress it but he couldn't help but be a little bit nervous about having dinner together with Magnus. Of course he was more than happy that Magnus wanted to spend time with him and his brother but he was also afraid that he would embarrass himself in front of him. He wasn’t that experienced with cooking yet and today he had tried a completely new recipe. What if he had fucked it up and it tasted absolutely disgusting? It smelled quite good but that didn't have to mean anything … 

Alec didn't want to risk making Magnus (or Max) sick from his cooking so he quickly grabbed a spoon and had a taste of it. Surprisingly it was really good. Alec was relieved and took the pot off the heat.  
Magnus and Max weren't back yet and Alec wondered what was taking them so long. However he decided to already set the table.

He had just taken the plates out of the cupboard when he heard the front door falling shut and Max and Magnus entered the kitchen.

"Oh wait let me do this" Magnus said quickly and took the plates out of his hands before Alec could protest. "You already cooked and you were so kind to invite me for dinner so I'm going to do this for you. Just sit down already."

Alec was baffled. "Uh thanks" he stammered. "But that's really not necessary." 

"Of course it is" Magnus protested. He had put the plates on the table by now and gently pushed Alec down on one of the chairs when he didn't show any intention of sitting down by himself.

Alec blushed cause for some weird reason Magnus giving him commands like that was doing some very strange things to his body ... 

"Where do you have glasses?" Magnus asked.

"Wait I'm going to show you" Max said.

\---------------------------------

A few minutes later the table was set and Magnus sat down on the chair opposite to him. Max was - as always - sitting next to Alec and he realised just now that there was something different on his brother: his nails were painted black - the very same glittery black Magnus had also used for his nails. 

Alec couldn't help but smile. So that's what had taken them so long.

Max saw his gaze and blushed a bit. "Do you like it?" he asked carefully.

"Of course I do. It looks amazing" Alec assured him.   
"Thank you." Max smiled happily and they started eating.

For the next few minutes nobody said a word and Alec started to feel slightly uncomfortable. He didn't want Magnus to think that he was boring so he quickly tried to think of something interesting to talk about. 

"So … uh … what have you been doing today?" he eventually came up with. Not very creative but probably better than nothing, he thought. "I mean before the thing with your cat happened and you came over."

"Oh I was just taking a bath" Magnus answered with a little grin on his face and Alec choked on his food. Magnus taking a bath was something he definitely shouldn't think about while he was eating. 

He started coughing and Max had to pat his back in order to calm him down again. 

"Well that's … uh … interesting" he croaked when he was able to breathe again and hoped that his face wasn't as red as it felt like. Magnus however seemed to realize that he was feeling a little bit awkward so he quickly changed the subject. 

"Anyways … how's school going?" he asked Max and Alec was very grateful that the center of attention wasn't on him any longer. "Any annoying classmates or teachers?" 

Max shook his head. "Not yet. They're all pretty cool until now and one of my classmates even invited me to his Halloween Party next month. I heard his parties are supposed to be very popular." 

"Back in New York my parties also used to be pretty popular … " Magnus sighed and seemed to be wallowing in memories for a moment. The smile on his face almost looked a little bit sad but probably Alec was reading too much into this again. "Chairman's birthday was the event." 

"You threw a birthday party for your cat?" Alec asked slightly confused. He wasn’t sure if he had understood correctly but to be honest he wouldn't be very surprised if he had.

Magnus nodded. "Yeah of course I did. Chairman only deserves the best. Unfortunately he missed most of it cause he ran away but still … it was a great day." Magnus smiled softly at the memory and he looked so cute that Alec almost couldn't handle it.   
This guy was really driving him insane. He was so different than anybody he had ever met before - so interesting and fascinating and completely unique. Maybe he was also a little bit crazy but that just made him even more attractive in Alec’s eyes. 

"That sounds pretty cool" Max said. "What about Halloween? Did you make parties on Halloween too?" 

"Oh yes. Halloween parties have actually always been my favorite. I love decorating for them - even though my previous neighbours weren't exactly happy about that." Magnus rolled his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Alec asked.

"Well as you may have noticed I'm not a very subtle person. My motto is go big or go home so my decorations maybe tend to be a little bit too much for most people." 

"But that's what I love about you" Alec said without thinking. As soon as the words had left his mouth and he realized what he had just said he wished he could just disappear right on the spot. "I mean … uh … I mean that this is a good thing" he corrected quickly. "That you are so true to yourself. It's very impressive. You shouldn't change that because of what other people might think."

Magnus smiled at him and Alec felt a faint tingle in his stomach when he looked back into his face. 

"Thank you, Alexander. I'm very flattered."  
Alec shyly narrowed his eyes but he was smiling as well. 

"Do you already know what costume you're going to wear on Halloween?" Max asked. "Or don't you do that any longer cause you're an adult?" 

"Of course I am going to wear a costume but I don’t know yet what." Magnus thought for a moment. "I should probably start planning that soon cause I still have to make it." 

Alec’s jaw dropped. "You make your own costumes?"

"Yes I also did design and create some of my clothes" Magnus said proudly. "It's real fun."

"Hah - I said right away that you look like a fashion designer!" Max grinned triumphantly. "But why don't you do this professionally?"

Magnus shrugged and rubbed his neck - a gesture Alec had never seen him doing before. "That's a good question. I would say that I have too many other things to do but actually I'm probably just afraid that it's not going to work out like I want it to." 

Alec could definitely understand where he was coming from but still this confession surprised him a little bit. Magnus always seemed so sure of everything he was doing and very confident so finding out that he was also insecure in some way was a little bit unexpected. 

"I think you should try" Alec said. "I can totally imagine that many people would love to buy your clothes." 

"Well … who knows what the future brings?" Magnus chuckled and drank a sip of his water.

"You know what … I think you should dress as Captain Jack Sparrow on Halloween - that would really fit you" Max suggested with a little smirk on his face and Alec almost would have choked on his food again. He knew exactly why his sneaky little brother was doing this and he really hoped that Magnus wouldn't find out about the reason as well. He felt like he was already being way too obvious about his feelings anyways and this would only make it even worse. 

Judging by his facial expression Magnus seemed to like Max's idea and Alec wasn’t really sure whether or not he should be happy about this. On one hand he would love seeing Magnus in the costume but on the other hand it would probably just make him even more attractive which was very bad. 

"Hey this is a great idea" Magnus said. "I mean I am not a very big fan of boats since that one … uh … let's call it 'unlucky incident' with Ragnor happened but I do love those movies."

Ragnor … Alec was certain that he had already heard this name somewhere. It took him a moment until he remembered: Magnus had mentioned the name at their first meeting exactly a week ago. Actually he had even done so in the very first sentence he had said to him: "You are not Ragnor." So Ragnor was the creepy dude he had met shortly before that and he was probably also the one who was living with him at the moment. 

Alec wondered what 'unlucky incident' Magnus had just been referring to but before he had the chance to ask he suddenly heard voices from the hallway.   
Apparently Izzy and Jace were home again.

\------------------------------

The rest of the weekend passed rather quickly.   
On Sunday Maryse was home for once and she insisted on doing something together as a family so they all went to see a movie together in the little cinema of the village. Surprisingly Maryse was in a really good mood so spending the day with her was actually way more fun than Alec had expected it to be. Maybe she really had just been stressed because of the move and all the work connected to it cause now that she was taking a little break she was definitely more happy again. She had even been laughing - something she hadn't done in a very long time - and Alec was very relieved to see that she was doing better now. 

After watching the movie and eating unhealthy amounts of popcorn they also visited one of their mothers old friends who was living in the same street as they did, right next to Magnus. Maryse had wanted to invite her to dinner as well on their first day here but she didn't have time and since Alec's mother had also been very busy in the last few days this was the first opportunity she could actually meet with her. Her name was Beverly and she was quite nice but again Alec had no idea where his mother could possibly know her from. Actually he knew very little about his mother's life in general, he realized and he wondered if this was a normal thing or if it was just their family who was like that.

But that had already been three days ago now.   
Today it was Wednesday and Alec was currently sitting in the library after his last lesson had ended. He was doing some school work - or that least he was trying to. He was having a very serious headache from all the reading he had done and he was pretty exhausted by now so it was hard to concentrate on what he was doing but he was determined to get this shit done today because he hated starting things and not finishing them immediately. 

Alec was actually surprised about how much work he had done already. He had expected that Magnus's presence would probably distract him too much but apparently he had been wrong about that. After a while he had gotten so much into his work that he didn't really pay attention to what was going on around him any longer and so he was more than a little bit startled when he suddenly heard Magnus clearing his throat right behind his back. 

Alec winced and his heart stopped beating for a second. How long had Magnus already been standing there?

"Sorry I didn't mean to scare you but you do realize that it's pretty late already right?" Magnus asked.

"What?" With a confused frown Alec looked at his watch and he was more than surprised when he saw that Magnus was right. 

Actually the library was already closing in five minutes and he was still sitting here, keeping Magnus from going home. 

"Oh my gosh I'm sorry. I totally lost track of time" Alec apologized quickly. "I'm going to leave immediately." He wanted to close the book he had been reading in and put it back into the shelf but Magnus stopped him from doing so.

"No, no it's alright" he said. 

Now Alec was even more confused. "But the library closes in five minutes … " 

"Well … good thing that you know the guy who is responsible for closing it" Magnus said with a grin on his face and jangled the keys in his pocket.

"So you would let me stay? Are you even allowed to do that? I don't want you to get into trouble because of me" Alec said insecurely but Magnus brushed it away with a dismissive gesture with his hand. 

"I'm sure it's alright as long as I have an eye on you" he said and Alec swallowed. That sounded kinda sexy. But also very dangerous cause now that he knew that he was completely alone with Magnus he was starting to get a bit nervous and he really didn't want to make a fool of himself again. 

Still Alec just couldn't say no to this. He ignored the voice inside his head who screamed that he should better go home immediately and nodded. "Okay."

"Great." Magnus beamed and sat down on the chair right next to his. "So what are you doing?" he asked curiously and leaned over to Alec so he could have a look at his notes.

Alec froze, shocked by the sudden proximity of the other guy. When Magnus had said that he wanted to keep an eye on him he definitely wouldn't have thought that he would mean it that literal. Magnus was so close to him that Alec could even smell the Sandalwood shampoo he used for washing his hair and his brain immediately stopped working. It took him embarrassingly long until he realized that Magnus had just asked him something and that he still needed to answer. 

"I … uh … I'm preparing a presentation for next week" Alec said and cleared his throat cause his voice suddenly sounded extremely brittle. "I was dumb enough to volunteer for doing the first one and now I kinda regret it." 

Since when did Sandalwood smell so good? This couldn't be normal.

"Which subject?"

"History. About the french revolution."

'Stop thinking about how he smells. You have to concentrate'. 

"Oh. Coincidentally I know quite a lot about that. Do you want me to help you?"

He was so screwed. "You would really do that?"

Magnus nodded. "Of course. This is clearly important so why shouldn't I help you?" he asked with a smile.

Alec shrugged, not daring to look into his face directly. "I don’t know … don't you want to leave after you've been here the whole day? I can also finish this at home, really."

He was still afraid that he was actually bothering Magnus with this but apparently that didn't seem to be the case: "It's okay, Alexander, really" Magnus assured him. "I'm not tired yet." He paused. "You on the other hand look kind of tense though … is everything alright?" He sounded concerned now and Alec was very touched that he cared so much about his well-being. Other people probably wouldn't even have noticed that there was something wrong but Magnus was different. 

"I'm just having a headache" Alec said which was at least half of the truth. About the other half he obviously couldn't tell Magnus. "I guess I've been thinking too much today but I really want to get this done before tomorrow." He sighed and rubbed his temples. 

"I understand" Magnus paused for a moment. "I can go and get you a coffee if you like."  
Alec frowned. "Isn't the cafeteria closed already?"  
"Yes but there's a coffee shop just one street from here." 

"What?" Alec laughed incredulously. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. "And you would really go there for me?" 

Magnus shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal at all. "I wouldn't have offered it otherwise" he said. 

Alec shook his head, not knowing where to look. "I'm fine, really. You don't need to go there. Also I thought it was forbidden to bring food or drinks into the library." 

"Yes that's true. But nobody would know except for us" Magnus remarked with a little smirk on his face. 

"I really appreciate the offer but I don’t want you to break any more rules because of me" Alec declined.

"Well how about that - we work on your presentation for half an hour and then I'm going to walk you home and buy you a coffee on our way back?" Magnus suggested.

Alec fought with himself for a moment. He really didn't want Magnus to feel the urge to buy something for him but on the other hand it seemed like Magnus wouldn't take no for an answer anyways so he eventually decided to take the offer.

"Okay" he said and smiled shyly. "If you insist."

"I do." Magnus moved his chair a little bit closer to Alec’s so that their shoulders were touching and looked at his notes again. "Then let's get this over with as fast as possible so you can go home and take a rest."

"Uh yeah, right" Alec stammered and tried his best not to get distracted by the other boys touch. He wondered if he would ever get used to having Magnus around him like that - he highly doubted it. 

POV Magnus  
Magnus grinned and he couldn't stop a little chuckle from leaving his mouth. After he and Alec had been working on his presentation for a few minutes he had to go to the toilet and even though he had only been gone for a very short time it seemed like the other boy had fallen asleep during his absence. When Magnus had left the room Alec had still been taking notes but now his head was lying on the desk in front of him and he was snoring quietly. His pencil had fallen to the floor and was lying next to his right foot. 

Magnus couldn't say that he was very surprised about this. Alec had been looking very tired for quite some time now and after all the work he had done today it had just been a matter of time before his body started protesting. He definitely needed a break now but unfortunately Magnus couldn't just let him sleep here.

For a moment he watched the other boy, not wanting to wake him up just yet, but then he realized that it was probably creepy if he was staring at Alec like that so he stopped doing so and stepped closer to him instead.

"Alexander - can you hear me?" he asked but Alec didn't react to his words so he carefully placed his hand on the other boys shoulder. 

That immediately woke him up. Alec winced and sat up so quickly that he almost lost balance.

"Hey, relax it's just me" Magnus said and grabbed his arm before Alec could fall off the chair. "You fell asleep and I had to wake you up somehow."

"Oh." Alec’s body calmed down again and he blushed. "I'm sorry" he said embarrassed and rubbed his neck. 

"You have nothing to apologize for. But I do think we should call it a day for today and go home now don't you think?"

Alec nodded. "Yeah you're probably right." 

"Great. I wouldn't have accepted no as an answer anyways" Magnus said seriously. "You're way too exhausted to keep going." 

He took the book they had used and put it back into the shelf while Alec was packing his stuff.  
After that Magnus closed the library and they left the school building together. 

"Oh wow it's kinda chilly isn't it?" Alec asked when they stepped outside and wrapped his arms around his upper body. Magnus could only agree with him. In the last few days the evenings had slowly started to get colder in general but Magnus was almost certain that it had never been as perceptible as it was today. You could definitely feel that autumn was just around the corner now. 

"Yes it definitely is" he said and put his hands into the pockets of his pants in order to keep them warm. Alec, who wasn't wearing a jacket but only jeans and a dark hoodie, did the same. Magnus would have given him a jacket but unfortunately he didn't have one either. And he obviously couldn't use his magic in front of the other boy. "We really should have brought jackets to school." 

"True." Alec laughed. "I also really would love to drink a hot chocolate now" he said with a dreamy expression on his face and sighed. 

"We can do that" Magnus replied. "Drink a hot chocolate I mean. Instead of the coffee I wanted to buy you."

Alec beamed at him. "Really?" he asked with almost childlike excitement. "That sounds great." Again Magnus could only agree with him.

\----------------------

Since the coffee shop wasn't very far away from the school they arrived there relatively quickly. Magnus opened the door for Alec and let him enter first, then he followed him. Inside the shop it was warm and cosy and the delicious smell of coffee was hanging in the air. 

"I really like it here" Alec said, when they sat down at one of the tables together, Magnus opposite to him. "My mother, Izzy, Jace, Max and me have already been here on our first day … " He interrupted himself and shook his head, chuckling as if he was just remembering something funny. Of course that made Magnus curious. 

"What?" he asked. "Why are you laughing?"

"We met Clary here for the first time" Alec told him. "And Jace was so shook when he saw her … it was hilarious. He's totally crushing on her."

Magnus smiled. "Well who can blame him? My biscuit is a very sweet and lovable person after all." 

"Oh I totally forgot that you're so close with her." Alec bit his lip. "You won't tell her about this, right? Jace would totally kill me."

"Yes, she's like a sister to me. But don't worry, I won’t say a word." 

Alec sighed in relief. "Thank you."

In that moment the waitress came to their table and asked for their orders. Magnus decided to take a hot chocolate as well and ordered for both of them.

"How is Max doing by the way?" he asked when the waitress was gone again. He really liked Alec’s brother and he knew that he was probably going through a hard phase at the moment. It was always difficult to figure out who you are and how to express yourself. Magnus wished he could help him with that but in the end it was something Max had to do alone.  
"Any trouble at school?"

Alec shook his head. "No, luckily not. He's doing fine, experimenting with some things."

"That's good. I guess we have all been there at some point" Magnus said. "I mean it took me centuries to figure out what eyeshadow color suits me best." 

"Centuries?" Alec chuckled. "That somehow makes it sound like you're incredibly old."

He was right. Magnus bit his lip. He should really pay more attention to how he was formulating things. Normally it was relatively easy for him to pretend that he was a completely normal human being and not a over four hundred year old warlock because he was very used to doing so by now but around Alec he felt so comfortable already that he forgot to control his mouth from time to time. 

He tried to cover up his mistake with a laugh. "You know that I tend to exaggerate sometimes. I love being dramatic, you know?" 

"Yes that's definitely true" Alec said, now laughing as well. "I'm slowly getting used to it."

Magnus felt like Alec was also slowly starting to get more relaxed and confident around him and he was very happy about that development. They were chattering and bickering almost the entire time while they were waiting for their orders to arrive and Magnus realized that he really loved Alec’s sarcastic and slightly sassy sense of humor. But what he loved even more was his laugh. He had never seen or heard him laugh before, not like that, and it was making his stomach tingle in a way he hadn't felt in a very long time. 

Alec was stunningly beautiful. Of course he was always good looking but when he was carefree like that he was even more attractive. He seemed so real now. Not stressed or nervous - just happy.

"Gosh it's been a long time since I have laughed like that" Alec said eventually when the waitress came to their table again and brought their drinks. 

"Same here" Magnus answered with a smile on his face. He didn't like the thought that Alec hadn't laughed in a long time of course but he was definitely proud and very happy that he had managed to changed that.

"Enjoy your drink" the waitress said friendly before she went back to work again. 

Magnus grabbed the cup in front of him and took a sip but he regretted it immediately when the hot liquid touched his lips. 

He cursed loudly and quickly put the cup back on the table again. 

"Fuck this hot chocolate is really living up to its name" Magnus said, trying to make the situation a little bit less embarrassing by being funny. 

Alec giggled. "Yes, when something is steaming it usually means that it's quite hot."

Magnus rolled his eyes. "Very clever, smart alec" 

They looked at each other for a few seconds and then started laughing again. 

"Please stop making me laugh my stomach is hurting already" Alec said breathlessly. 

"You are the one who started it" Magnus protested. 

"What? No, I'm not!"

"I really like this. Hanging out with you like that. We should definitely do this more often." Magnus changed the topic, now completely serious again.  
Alec stared at him and blushed a bit. "Yes that would be awesome. I really like this as well."

Magnus's heart made a little jump at the other boys words. He wished he could just invite him to a date, a real date. He wished he could just tell him how beautiful he was and that he was probably about to fall in love with him but he couldn't do that and it was breaking his heart. Still he really enjoyed being with him like this as well and he would take everything he could get without dragging Alexander into a life he didn't want. 

Magnus had learned from his previous mistake so he waited a few minutes before he carefully tried to drink something again. Luckily he didn't burn his tongue this time.

"Oh wow this tastes incredible" Alec said, who had now started drinking as well and licked his lips. When he put down his cup Magnus couldn't help but smile. There was whipped cream on top of the hot chocolate and some of it was now on Alec’s nose as well but he didn't seem to realize. He did realize the way Magnus was looking at him though and started to frown. "What?" he asked. "Is there something wrong?"

Magnus shook his head. "No you just have a little something here … wait a second …" he mumbled and without thinking about what he was doing he leaned over the table. Magnus used his thumb in order to wipe the cream off and then licked it from his finger, only realizing the possible sexual ambiguity behind the gesture when Alec blushed and narrowed his eyes.

Damn. He should really be more careful but somehow his brain didn't seem to be able to work properly when Alec was around him. 

Magnus opened his mouth in order to say something but before he was able to do so he saw someone very familiar entering the coffee shop behind Alec’s back and cursed silently instead. Why for heaven's sake did Ragnor have to show up here just now when he was having a good time? This had to be a joke.

"What’s the matter?" Alec asked and turned around, trying to figure out who or what Magnus was looking at. 

"It's just somebody I really don't want to talk to right now" Magnus said, then he quickly grabbed the menu which was still lying on the table and held it in front of his face. Hopefully that was enough so that Ragnor wasn't able to see him. Alec probably thought that he had gone completely crazy now but Magnus didn't care. If Ragnor saw him together with the 'Lightwood boy' he would surely think that they were having a date and then he would start teasing him about it right here in front of Alexander. Or maybe he would even bring up this stupid bet they had made and that would be even worse.

"Isn't that the guy who is living with you at the moment?" Alec asked. 

Magnus nodded but then he realized that Alec probably couldn't see it because he was still hiding his face behind the card so he confirmed it verbally again, just to be sure. "Unfortunately yes."

He heard Alec cuckle. "Is he really that annoying?"

"Oh you have no idea … what is he doing? Did he see me?" Magnus asked since he couldn't look by himself (at least not without the possibility of getting seen).

"No he didn't. He's ordering something" Alec told him. "It doesn't look like he wants to stay very long." 

"Let’s hope so." Magnus sighed. "Also I'm very sorry for this. You probably think that I have lost my mind now." 

"No, I don’t. I think it's kinda funny. Even though it might look a little bit weird that I'm talking to the backside of the menu card the entire time" Alec said.

Magnus tried to suppress a giggle. "Shut up - you're going to make me laugh again." 

\------------------------ 

Luckily Alec had been right and Ragnor left the shop just a few minutes later. After that they were able to enjoy their hot chocolate without any further interruptions and they were having such a great time that they didn't realize how fast time flew by. Only when Alec eventually took a quick look on his smartphone he realized that it was pretty late already and that they should better go home now.  
Magnus was a little bit disappointed that the evening had to end already but of course he also had to let Alec go at some point so he didn't protest.

Outside it was even colder now than it had been before so they were walking very quickly.   
Magnus would probably sit down in front of the fireplace when he was inside his house again - he had always loved hearing the soft crackling of the flames and feeling their heat on his skin. It was very peaceful and calming in his opinion. 

'But it would probably feel even better if there was somebody sitting next to you' he thought. And he definitely didn't mean somebody like Ragnor. 

Magnus hadn't been physically close to another person for quite some time now and right now he got aware of that again really intensely. He was yearning to be close to Alec, to cuddle with him or to just lie next to him and hold his hand … but it could never be like that. Not with him.

"That was a great evening" Alec said when they had arrived at their destination and were standing on the pavement together. 

"Yeah doing research in the library surely has something" Magnus joked, trying harder than ever to not let his true feelings show.

Alec smiled. "I was rather talking about everything that happened after that. But actually the research part also wasn't that bad." 

"Yes I think so too." 

They looked at each other and again there was this strange tension between them, until Alec eventually broke the silence.

"So … uh ... good night, Magnus" he said and rubbed his neck.

"Good night Alexander" Magnus answered softly and resisted the urge to just lean forward and kiss the other boys cheek or to somehow touch him in another way. 

Alec quickly gave him one last smile, then he turned around and walked to the door. Magnus looked after him until he had disappeared into the house. When the door fell shut behind him he sighed quietly.  
Alec Lightwood really was a very special person … he just wished things would be easier with him cause he already saw it coming that this whole thing between them was only going to end in heartbreak no matter what he decided to do or to not do in the end ...


	15. Chapter 15

Pov Alec

When Alec closed the door behind him his heart was still beating way too fast. The way Magnus had just been looking at him had left him breathless ... And then he had also called him 'Alexander' again - Alec’s heart fluttered with excitement just by thinking about it. 

This evening was definitely one of the best he had had in a very long time or, actually, one of the best he had ever had at all. He was slowly starting to feel less nervous around Magnus and that was a huge relief. Also Magnus was actually very easy to talk to in contrast to other people. When Alec was trying to have a conversation it normally didn't work quite well because 90% of the time he didn't know what to say and the other one quickly lost interest. Magnus however never made him feel pressured to say something. He never made him feel like he was bored of him and when Alec didn't know what to say he just told some funny stories or made a joke to lighten up the mood. Being with Magnus just felt so right. As if it was supposed to be. They were completely different but Alec had a feeling that they actually complemented each other quite well. 

Still smiling he took off his shoes and quickly checked his appearance in the mirror on the hallway wall. His hair was as tousled as always - or maybe even a bit more cause it had been a little windy on their way back. Alec tried to tame it half-heartedly but it was useless anyways so he eventually gave up with a sigh. Then he suddenly heard a mixture of voices and jauntily laughter coming out of the living room. Curiously he followed the noise and was more than surprised to find not only all of his siblings but also Simon Lewis sitting on the sofa in front of the television, playing video games together. Well at least Max, Izzy and Simon were playing actively as far as he could judge - Jace on the other hand seemed to be watching the whole thing rather than actually participating and he was holding a large bowl of popcorn in his hands. 

Alec guessed that Izzy had probably invited Simon over cause he couldn't really imagine that Jace had been the one to do so. 

Alec cleared his throat but nobody reacted to it. He guessed that they probably couldn't hear him over the loud noises in the room. Simon and his siblings generally seemed to be way too distracted by what was happening on the screen in front of them to realize what was going on around them so Alec decided to take advantage of the situation and mess with Jace a bit.

He was standing right behind him now, but his brother still didn’t notice anything. What he did notice though was when Alec eventually put his cold hand on his neck. Jace winced so hard that he almost dropped the bowl on the floor and started cursing loudly. 

Alec giggled, very satisfied with the result of his little prank. Jace however didn't seem to be very amused about what he had done.

"Fuck you, Alec, you almost gave me a freakin heart attack!" he hissed at him. "Where on earth do you suddenly come from and why are your hands so cold? Did you put them into the freezer or what?" 

His obvious anger only made Alec even more amused about the situation. "It's cold outside" he just said as an explanation and laughed. 

Jace growled at him. "That's not funny dude!" 

"Actually it is" Simon said. 

The others also had noticed Alec's presence by now and they were all giggling about Jace's behaviour.

"You should better pay attention to the game" Jace replied and gestured at the TV. "Izzy is totally kicking your ass."

"Jup. That's about right" Izzy said with a grin and pushed Simons car aside while she was overtaking him. 

"Hey that's not fair" Simon complained. "Without me you wouldn't even know how to play this game!"

Izzy shrugged nonchalantly. "Well what can I say? I'm a fast learner." 

"Yeah. Too fast for my taste" Simon grumbled.

"Since when are you interested in games like that by the way?" Alec asked his sister.

"Well Simon is always going on about how much fun they are so I wanted to see what the fuss was about." 

"I can't believe you all actually never played that before! I mean what is childhood without playing Mario Cart and arguing with your siblings?" Simon shook his head. 

"Oh we did find other ways to argue about" Max said.

"Like what?"

"Izzy’s cooking skills for example" Jace remarked with a grin on his face.

Izzy gave him deadly look but instead of saying something she just grabbed a handful of popcorn out of his bowl and put it in her mouth.

"Hey, hands off my popcorn!"

"Guess you need to guard your food better. And stop bringing up the cooking thing all the time!"

"But Simon asked for it!" 

Simon was just about to reply something - at least Alec guessed that this was what he had been wanting to do cause he had already opened his mouth - when Maryse entered the room and everybody stopped talking.

"Seems like you're having fun" she said with a smile. 

"Oh yeah definitely" Jace said. "Watching this is better than any TV series." 

Izzy rolled her eyes, while Simon who had been sitting next to her suddenly jumped to his feet.

"Uh … hi Ms. Lightwood … I uh … I'm Simon" he stammered and blushed deeply. "I hope it's okay that I'm here … if not that's totally fine of course. I can go home immediately if I'm bothering you. Oh and you have a very beautiful house by the way. I know it's not fully furnished yet but still it looks very nice …"   
He nervously rambled on until Maryse interrupted him with a little laugh. 

"It’s okay, really. No reason to be nervous." 

"Really? Oh thank god." Simon let out a sigh of relief. 

"Of course. I'm very happy to meet you and you are always welcome here" Maryse assured him and Simon beamed. 

Alec wondered if his mother would ever react like that if he invited Magnus over again. Probably not. 

"What about dinner though?" she asked now, looking at Izzy and the others. "Aren't you hungry?" 

"No, Simon brought us some takeaway food from this amazing chinese place" Max answered. "It was absolutely delicious." 

"Oh yeah, I also brought something for the two of you" Simon said, apparently just remembering it now. "We put it in the fridge cause we didn't know exactly when you were going to come back and we didn't want the food to spoil until then."

Maryse looked surprised. "Oh that's very nice of you Simon but it really wouldn't have been necessary. How much did it cost you? I will give you the money back … " 

"No, no, it's no problem." Simon made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "I do know the owners of the Jade Wolf very well and we have this arrangement that my band and I do play some music there occasionally without getting paid for it but instead we do get the food for free" he explained. 

"Oh that's great. When are you going to play again? We could come to see you."

"Oh … uh … I don’t know to be honest. But I'll let you know then" Simon said, now blushing again. The thought of their mother wanting to see his bands performance seemed to make him very nervous.   
Alec couldn't blame him though. 

\-------------------------------------------

While Alec was eating dinner together with his mother Simon, Izzy and Max continued playing the video game, until Simon suddenly realized how late it already was. He hastily said goodbye to everyone and then he basically ran out of their house. Izzy looked after him with a chuckle. 

"He's kinda cute isn't he?" she asked Alec who had finished eating by now and was standing next to her.

Alec grimaced. "Depends on what your definition of cute is I guess" he said, definitely not finding Simon attractive in any way.

"Well I do know what your definition of cute is though." Izzy smirked. "You only have eyes for Magnus, huh?" 

The others were still in the living room so nobody could hear their conversation but still Alec couldn't help but blush. "Izzy!" 

"What? Oh and you have to tell me more about your afternoon in the library … No offence Alec but you're grinning like a cheshire cat since you came back home and I highly doubt that working on your essay was that much fun..." 

"It’s a presentation, not an essay" Alec corrected her but Izzy just rolled her eyes. "Whatever" she said. "I know exactly that our sexy neighbour slash school librarian is the reason why you haven't been 'working on your presentation' here at home and you can't deny it." 

"I have no idea what those air quotes are supposed to imply" Alec said, acting stupid on purpose. "Also I needed some books from the library for my research." 

Izzy laughed loudly. "As if! Nowadays you can find almost every information you need on the internet. Even you know that, Alec!" 

Unfortunately Alec had to admit that that was indeed a very good argument. He just wanted to say something in return when suddenly Maryse appeared behind them. 

"What’s the matter?" she asked curiously. 

"Nothing" Alec said quickly.

"We were just talking about the fact that Alec loves our school library very much." 

"Oh really?" 

"Yes … uh … they do have some very good books there that I want to use for research" Alec stammered. 

Luckily his mother seemed to believe him. "I'm so happy that you're so studious and ambitious about your school work" she said with a proud smile on her face. 

"Uh … thanks …" Alec mumbled embarrassed and hoped that Izzy wouldn't say anything further which indicated something about Magnus working there. 

Actually he didn't really mind when his sister was teasing him about his crush (or whatever it was) but he didn't want his mother to find out that he was spending so much time with their neighbour. Within the last few days they all had been coming along pretty well and he really didn't want to disturb the peaceful atmosphere by starting any kind of discussions or fights with Maryse. 

"I think I'm going to take a shower now and go to bed then" he said, mainly because he wanted to escape from the situation. "I'm actually really tired." 

"I can imagine. Then goodnight honey."   
Alec cringed at the pet name his mother had given him but he didn't say anything. He just wanted to get away from this as fast as possible.

\---------------------- 

When Alec stepped out of the bathroom a few minutes later his hair was still a little bit wet. He was wearing his pyjama pants and a towel around his shoulders, apart from that he was still naked. 

Quickly he walked over the hallway and opened the door to his room, almost having a heart attack when he saw that Izzy was sitting on his bed. She was wearing her pyjamas already and her hair was pinned up into a messy bun.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Alec asked startled and automatically hid his bare chest behind the towel. 

Izzy rolled her eyes. "Don't act like I've never seen you shirtless before. Here's your top."

She took the shirt from her brothers bed and threw it into his direction. Alec dropped the towel and caught it just in time.

"Good reflexes." 

"You still didn’t answer my question" Alec reminded her while he was putting his shirt on. 

"Well I'm here cause you still didn’t answer my question either" Izzy replied unimpressed.

Alec frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you still didn’t tell me why you were bursting with happiness when you came home."

Alec sighed deeply and dropped the towel on his desk chair before sitting down next to his sister. 

"How did you even realise?" he asked and ran his fingers through his hair. "I thought you were totally concentrated on that game."

"I am very well capable of multitasking, big brother. And even a blind person would have seen that. So … what was going on?" 

"We have been working on my presentation just like I said." 

"And?" 

"Okay fine, maybe we also went to that coffeeshop afterwards" Alec eventually gave in. "But we were just drinking a hot chocolate together, that's all." 

He hoped that Izzy would be satisfied with that answer and apparently she was: "Ha! I knew exactly that there was more going on than just studying" she exclaimed with a satisfied grin on her face. "And how was it?" 

Now that he was thinking about it again Alec couldn't help but smile. "It was amazing" he said. "He's amazing."

"Awww I'm so happy for you, Alec."

"Yeah I'm happy too. Just please don't mention this in front of mum."

"I wouldn't do that anyways but why is it so important?" Izzy asked, sounding slightly confused. 

Alec remembered that he hadn't told his sister about his conversation with their mother yet so he did it now. After he had finished Izzy's jaw dropped and she gasped indignantly. 

"No way, I don’t believe that for a second" she said. "Magnus is an amazing person. I really don't get where mom's hate on him is coming from."

"Yeah me neither" Alec said and shrugged helplessly. He just hoped that Maryse would change her opinion about Magnus at some point in the future. 

Izzy sighed. "Well anyways … you should probably sleep now. You look like you can barely hold your eyes open."

She was indeed right about that. Alec really was very tired - he had been yawning constantly since he came out of the shower and he couldn't wait to finally cuddle up under his blanket and get some rest. 

"Yeah. Sleep sounds like a good idea" he said and smiled tiredly. "Good Night Izzy." 

"Good Night big brother" Izzy said and went to the door. She was already standing on the hallway but then she turned around again and shortly peeked back into Alec’s room. "Have sweet dreams about Magnus" she said and made some very childish kissing noises to clarify what she was hinting at.  
Alec threw a pillow at her but Izzy caught it and threw it back at him. "Love you too." 

Pov Magnus 

When Magnus entered his house a few minutes later he was greeted by not only Ragnor but also another man who was in the living room together with him. Magnus could already hear their voices on the hallway and he immediately recognised that the other man was Elias - an old friend of theirs he hadn't heard much of in the last few weeks. After giving up his position as High Warlock of Brooklyn and leaving the city, he had offered Elias to live in his old apartment cause he wanted to find something new for himself. Elias had gratefully accepted the offer and had been living there for quite some time now.

Surprised Magnus raised his eyebrows and walked into the room. "Elias! How wonderful to see you again" he said happily but his smile quickly turned into a frown when he saw the serious expressions on his friends faces. "Did something happen?"

"You could say that" Elias answered with a sigh. "I wish I had better news but unfortunately I don’t."

"What news? What’s going on?" Magnus asked, now slowly starting to get nervous. 

"It's about Lorenzo" Ragnor said.

"Rey?" Magnus made a face. "That's indeed not very pleasant. Just hearing his name is already bad enough." He sat down on one of his armchairs, annoyed that his good mood was about to get ruined again. The evening with Alec had been so perfect and now this … Of course he didn't know yet what Elias wanted to tell him - how could he? - but what he did know already was that he wasn't going to like it. It was Lorenzo he wanted to talk about after all. 

"You can say that again" Elias agreed with him. "Okay so what I wanted to tell you is … "

"That asshole made Elias give your old apartment to him" Ragnor blurted out, interrupting the other man in mid-sentence. 

"Yeah exactly that" Elias mumbled.

Magnus jumped to his feet. "He did what?!" 

"I'm so sorry Magnus but he didn't leave me another choice …" Elias apologized quickly. 

"You don't have to apologize. I know that this wasn't your fault. But why on earth did he do that?"

Magnus was so startled and confused about what he had just heard that he subconsciously started pacing through the room while Elias was answering his question and explained what had happened. 

Apparently there had been a problem with the ley lines - the place where warlocks and faeries got their powers from - and after Elias had fixed it Lorenzo refused to give him credit for his work and claimed having it done all by himself. This of course had sparked a rather heated argument between the two of them and at some point Elias had lost his temper. 

"I really tried to hold myself back but you know Lorenzo … he's a little piece of shit. So I accidentally gave him a little push with my magic and he fell into the East River."

Magnus' eyes went wide. "You're kidding, right?" he asked, his voice sounding shocked but also impressed at the same time.

Elias sighed and looked down at his hands. "Unfortunately not."

"Gosh how much I would have loved to see this" Ragnor said with a dreamy expression on his face. 

"Well Lorenzo didn't find it very amusing though" Elias continued, ignoring Ragnors comment. "After that he was furious and he said he would ban me into the lower regions of the Spiral Labyrinth for what I did. He was so angry that I was sure he would actually do it so I asked for a deal instead and well … he wanted the apartment. Nothing else. So I had to give it to him. I'm so sorry Magnus, I really should have controlled myself better then none of this would have happened." Elias looked miserable. 

"Oh believe me I totally understand" Magnus assured his friend, not wanting him to feel guilty. After all he had just lost his home as well. "If I hadn't left the city I definitely would have done something like that to him as well at some point. He definitely deserved it." 

"And what are we gonna do now?" Ragnor asked. 

"Well I actually already found something new" Elias said. "My girlfriend and I wanted to move in together anyways so I'm living with her now. I just thought you should know about this, Magnus. It was your apartment after all and I know that you probably still have a special connection to it."

"I definitely had a really great time in there but after all it's just an apartment. I'm definitely not very happy that Lorenzo of all people has it now but as long as you're fine everything's alright, I guess" Magnus said and walked over to the cupboard where he was storing his alcohol. He was just about to pour himself a glass of wine when suddenly a thought came to his mind and he froze in the middle of the movement.

"Elias … you didn't leave my potions book in the apartment after you left, right?" he asked. "Cause as far as I remember you haven't been giving it back to me yet."

Elias' face went pale. "Oh fuck." 

Magnus groaned and buried his face in his hands. Normally he wouldn't care that much but the book he was talking about wasn't just a normal potions book - it was something Magnus had worked on very hard for centuries. His very own recipes and formulas were in there, some for improving already existing potions and elixirs but also some completely new ones he had been coming up with. He had leant Elias the book because he was a friend and he wanted to use one of his formulas but he definitely didn't want people like Lorenzo Rey getting their dirty fingers on it. He would probably steal the book and present all the ideas in it as his own.

"Magnus I'm so sorry" Elias stammered. "I hid the book in the wall safe … maybe he hasn't found it yet."

If he was being honest Magnus highly doubted this but nevertheless he had to convince himself first.   
Together with Ragnor and Elias he portaled onto the hallway in front of his old apartment. Just like he had expected there was a protection spell surrounding it but it was a rather easy one therefore Magnus and his friends were able to deactivate without much effort. 

As soon as the ward was down Magnus stormed into the room without looking around any further. He immediately headed towards the wall safe and yanking it open with an energetic movement of his hand, sending a trail of sizzling red sparks flying through the air. Normally his magic was blue and more calm but when warlocks were uncontrolled or very emotional while using their powers it always turned into a different color like for example a deep, fiery red when they were angry. And Magnus was angry.

He saw that the safe was empty and cursed loudly, even though he had already seen it coming. Lorenzo had probably grabbed the book immediately after he had found it and was now guarding it in his library. 

"Well that's just fucking great!" Magnus hissed and slammed the door shut again. He clenched his hands and punched against the wall. Of course that didn't solve his problem and it was actually very painful but Magnus was so angry that he just couldn't stop himself. 

He turned around and was immediately feeling even worse when he saw that Lorenzo apparently had already redecorated the room by hanging up various oversized paintings of himself. Golden framed they were depicting him in heroic poses and the narcissistic expression on his face actually came very close to how he was looking in reality. 

"Ugh I think I have to throw up" Magnus moaned and Ragnor agreed with him, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "These paintings are the cringiest thing I have ever seen. It’s absolutely pathetic. And kind of embarrassing."

"Why do I suddenly feel reminded of Gilderoy Lockhart?" Magnus mumbled. 

Ragnor and Elias gave their friend a confused look but he really wasn't in the mood to explain the reference to them at the moment so he just waved it off. "Never mind" he said. 

For a few seconds neither of them was staying a word but then Elias eventually broke the silence: "And what are we going to do now?" he asked. 

Magnus threw his hands in the air. "I don’t know. He probably has the book in his villa and I bet he's guarding it like gold. It's impossible to just get in there without him noticing." 

"Except there was somebody to distract him who could open you a door from the inside" Ragnor thought loudly.

"But who?" Magnus asked. "You can't do it cause he thinks you're dead and Elias can't do it either cause I'm pretty sure he's still angry at him and not in the mood for talks. Apart from that there's just Catarina but she's still at the hospital and I really don't want to drag her into this." 

"Right" Ragnor mumbled and seemed to think for a moment; then suddenly he started smirking. Obviously he had an idea. Magnus just hoped that it was a good one. "As far as I remember there is another person we know who would be very happy to help you. And I'm pretty sure that she's amazing at distracting people cause she's like the most talkative person on this planet …" 

Ragnor left the sentence unfinished but of course Magnus knew nevertheless who he was talking about: "Mother."

\--------------------------

Just like Ragnor had predicted Magnus' mother came over immediately after he had send her a fire message, explaining the situation. And she was furious.

"I just can't believe this. Who does this slimy, arrogant little reptile think he is?" she ranted angrily while she was pacing up and down the living room just like Magnus had been doing it not even twenty minutes ago. "Stealing things that don't belong to him and taking credit for other people's work … that's the most disgusting thing I have ever heard! Which complete morons were responsible for putting him into charge in the first place?! I bet he has absolutely zero talent compared to you!"

"Calm down, mother" Magnus said and stopped her aggressive walking by grabbing her arm. "When we're at Lorenzo's you have to act like you don't know anything about this whole thing or he won't let you in." 

"I know, I know" she said and took a deep breath, apparently trying to calm herself down. "I won't let him notice, believe me. You shouldn't underestimate my acting skills. Or my determination."

"I would never."

"Okay then let's do this." 

Magnus nodded and opened a portal which transported them right in front of Lorenzo's house. 

"Are you sure that you don't want me to curse him?" his mother asked. "Cause I would definitely be in the mood for it."

"No, mother. I don’t want you to get into any trouble" Magnus said strictly, hoping that she would actually listen to him. "Just keep him distracted and open the door at the side of the living room for me."

Magnus' mother rolled her eyes and mumbled something about him 'not even granting her a little fun' but eventually she agreed with his conditions. "Fine. As you wish honey" she said.

While his mother was walking towards the main entrance he quickly scurried over to the second door and hid behind a bush near to it.

His mother was talking so loudly that he could still hear her from his position and he had to admit that she was playing her role perfectly fine. She greeted Lorenzo enthusiastically and told him that she was new in the neighbourhood but that she had of course already heard of him - the great High Warlock of Brooklyn with the exquisite taste - and that she had been wondering if she could maybe get to know him a little better since he seemed to be such an impressing person. 

Apparently Lorenzo's answer was yes cause not even one minute later Magnus already heard the door closing behind them.

Through the twigs of the bush he was able to glimpse into the living room and he saw that his mother and Lorenzo were talking. Things seemed to go quite well cause they were both laughing.  
Then finally when Lorenzo walked over to the other side of the room to grab a bottle of champagner Magnus' mother inconspicuously moved to the back door and opened it just a tiny bit. 

Then she walked back to Lorenzo and took the glass he was offering her. Unfortunately he was now looking into Magnus' direction again but his mother quickly found a solution for that as well: "Oh what a beautiful painting over there" she exclaimed and pointed at the other end of the room. "You are looking really handsome in this." 

"Well …" Magnus heard Lorenzo chuckle with false modesty. "Actually there's a very interesting story about how this painting was created."

"Oh I would love to hear that story!"

Lorenzo was obviously falling for her false flirting and he definitely was completely distracted now so Magnus seized the opportunity and quickly slid inside the house, carefully closing the door behind him. Without making a sound he hurried out of the room and onto the hallway. When he was sure to be in a safe distance he let out a sigh of relief and slowed his steps down a bit. He had made it - the most difficult part was done. He had gotten into Lorenzo's house without him realizing. 

Now all that was left to do was getting his book back and leave again. Suddenly Magnus was very happy that he had been going to Lorenzo's party after he had been elected High Warlock because he had seen his entire house back then and knew exactly where he had to go to.

Even though the way wasn't that long Magnus was more than relieved when he finally arrived in front of the library door. On the hallway there were hanging a whole bunch of those horrible paintings again and he was sure that he was going to get a serious headache if he had to look at them just for one more second.

Surprised Magnus found out that the door in front of him was indeed locked what was a little bit weird considering that Lorenzo had been all alone in his house until like five minutes ago.

"Seems like somebody's a little paranoid" he mumbled and opened the door with his magic.   
'Well it's not exactly unjustified though' he thought amused while he entered the room. 'Since you're just breaking in.'

Lorenzo's library was huge so searching for his book could probably take a while, especially when he had been hiding it. Magnus just hoped that his mother would be able to distract Lorenzo that long. 

About twenty minutes later Magnus still hadn't found what he was looking for and he was slowly starting to get impatient and very frustrated. "What a great way to spend my evening" he groaned in annoyance while he was helplessly running through the maze of bookshelves which were Lorenzo's library. "I could be sitting peacefully in front of the fireplace now with a nice bottle of wine but no - of course this idiot has to ruin everything. How on earth am I supposed to find anything in here … This is absolutely ridiculous."

Magnus walked around the corner and realized only then that there was actually a plan hanging on one of the shelves, separating the library into different sections. 

"Oh how convenient for me" he mumbled sarcastically. "I'm just going to look for the section 'books stolen from others' and voilà - all my problems are gone." 

Magnus was almost certain that this stupid plan wouldn't be of any use for him but still he decided to take a closer look at it. It seemed like the books about potions were at the right end of the room. Magnus' book was a book about potions. Basically.   
Maybe this was a stupid idea but Magnus decided to give it a try anyways and walked to the end of the room, positively surprised when he was actually finding what he had been looking for. 

"Hah! There you are" he said triumphantly and carefully took his book out of the shelve where it had been standing so naturally as if it was one of Lorenzo's own. Just to be sure he quickly opened the book and checked if Lorenzo had done anything with it but everything seemed to be alright. 

Satisfied Magnus walked back to the door and he almost had a heart attack when suddenly a person who was poking their head into the room. "Magnus, honey are you still in there?" 

"Mom!" Magnus squeaked and almost dropped his book. He tried not to sound as if he was in panic but he was failing miserably. "What on earth are you doing here? You have to distract Lorenzo!"

"Oh don't worry that won't be necessary any longer" his mother answered with a wicked grin on her face and casually leaned against the door frame while she was waiting for him to leave the room.

Magnus stared at her. What on earth had she done? "Oh my god mother you didn't … you didn't kill him did you?" 

He knew he was probably being ridiculous but he just had to ask. It was his mother after all and if he was being honest he thought that she was capable of anything, especially when it came to him. She was one of the most powerful warlocks he had ever known and she was always very protective of him. 

His mother laughed. "Killed him? Oh no honey, definitely not. You know, that's not my style. I mean where would be the fun in that?" 

Strangely enough this statement wasn't calming Magnus down at all. He rather felt even more nervous now.

"Mom … what did you do?" he repeated his question, this time more a little bit more forcefully, pressing for an answer.

"Oh it was nothing, really" his mother said with an innocent expression on her face that would probably actually fool people who didn't know her better. Of course Magnus didn't fall for it for a second. "I just spilled one or two drops of my favourite little elixir into his champagner when he turned his back to me." 

Oh … OH. Now things were starting to make sense. 

"See - I didn't actually hurt him in any way. Just like you wanted" his mother said, clearly pleased with herself. "He's just going to feel a little bit sick for the next two days and will probably not come out of the bathroom again anytime soon." 

Magnus was speechless for a moment but then a wide grin started spreading on his face. "That was an absolutely brilliant idea" he said. 

"I know, right? He definitely deserves it." His mother smirked wickedly. "But now let's get the hell out of here. I really don't want to be inside this horrible house longer than necessary."

Magnus could only agree with that so they quickly left and then portaled back into his house.

"Hah see - I told you this would work" Ragnor said triumphantly when Magnus entered the living room with the book in his hands, his mother following him.

"Oh yes it worked fantastically" she said cheerfully and patted Magnus' shoulder. "I really missed spending some family time with my son."

"You call that family time? Seriously?"

"Why not?" she asked. "We are a family and we were together. Plus I was having a lot of fun."

Magnus shook his head. His mother really was something else. "You're totally crazy - you know that, right?"

"Me? Crazy? Oh please! That is definitely an understatement."

Magnus chuckled. 

"You know if you ever want to mess with Lorenzo again just send me a fire message" she said. "Maybe I could turn him into a chameleon next time .. "

"Oh I totally love that idea" Ragnor exclaimed. "We could keep him in a terrarium then and he would be forced to eat dead flies till the end of his life." 

"If we're taking the vote: I'm in favor as well" Elias said, making Magnus' mother laugh.

Then suddenly her phone started buzzing and she pulled it out of her pocket.

"Oh" she said when she was looking at the display. "I knew I forgot about something."

"What did you forget about?" Magnus asked.

"The very well-dressed guy who's sitting in my living room at the moment." 

Magnus' jaw dropped. "You - you have a date? And you just left him there to help me breaking into Lorenzo's house?"

"Of course I did" his mother said like it was the most stupid question in the world. "You are way more important than any date, honey."

Magnus blushed slightly, overwhelmed by how much this incredible woman cared about him. Even though she wasn't his biological mother she was making him feel more loved than anybody else could ever do. He was about to get very emotional but then his mother ruined the moment by speaking on: "Also he's totally going to forget that I was gone in the first place once I give him his dessert … if you know what I mean" she said with a smirk on her face, making Magnus cover his ears with hands.

"OH MY GOD! PLEASE, I REALLY DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THIS!" he squeaked in horror and saw that in the background Elias and Ragnor were quietly laughing their asses off. 

His mother however just laughed and blew a kiss at him, then she created a portal and disappeared. 

\------------------------------------------------

Compared to how crazy that evening had been the next day started rather ordinary for Magnus. He was having breakfast together with Ragnor and then went to school as usual, already looking forward to seeing Alec again. 

When - after what felt like an eternity - the bell finally rang for lunch break Magnus waited for him, assuming that he would come to the library again but he didn't show up. 

Magnus couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed. Of course he understood that Alec couldn't always hang out with him - he had other friends as well after all - but he had hoped that he would at least say 'Hello' to him, especially after how well they had been getting along yesterday.

Magnus was just helping a younger student searching for a book she needed when suddenly Izzy came into the room. 

Surprised Magnus raised his eyebrows because even though he didn't know her for that long yet he had already figured out that Alec’s sister was a person who wasn't a very big fan of reading or learning and he was almost certain that she wasn't here because she was looking for a book.

"Isabelle!" he said, greeting her. "If you are looking for your brother - he's not here."

"I know that" Izzy said and walked up to him. "And that's exactly why I'm here."

Magnus frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?" he asked, completely forgetting about the little girl he was supposed to help.

"Alec is not at school today" Izzy explained to him. "I just wanted to tell you so you wouldn't be confused."

"Oh. Okay. Is he sick? Did he catch a cold?" Magnus asked - in his opinion a fairly obvious assumption after how cold it had been yesterday in the evening. But apparently he was wrong.

"No, it's nothing like that" Izzy said and shook her head. "He had a little accident this morning and he's still in hospital."

Magnus was shocked. "Wait, what?!"


	16. Chapter 16

POV Alec 

Normally Alec always saw it coming when his day was going to be shitty. He didn't know how but he always felt it right after first opening his eyes in the morning. It was like a gut instinct which told him that it would probably be better to just stay in bed and go to sleep again. 

This time however it had been different. Alec hadn't felt anything bad or suspicious when he woke up but rather the opposite. He had been dreaming about having a date with Magnus and even though it wasn't real it made him feel like he was walking on air. 

For a few minutes he had just been lying there with a big smile on his face and listened to the faint sound of chirping birds outside his window, thinking again how different living here was from living in New York. Here it was so quiet at night and in the morning that Alec had first felt kind of uncomfortable about it. There were no traffic noises or something like that and everything seemed so rural. In the beginning it had felt like there was something missing but by now he slowly started to enjoy the difference and it didn't feel as strange and unfamiliar anymore. Waking up like this was actually very nice and peaceful. 

The peacefulness however had eventually found a very sudden ending this morning and now Alec was here, sitting in a hospital next to his mother and his arm hurt like hell.

He still couldn't believe that something as stupid as this had happened to him and he just wanted to die of shame. Also his mother was annoying him quite a lot because she was being exaggeratedly concerned about him and behaved like he would die at any second.

"Mom, I've already told you it's not that bad" Alec tried to convince her for what felt like the millionth time. "It's probably just a bruised bone." 

"But you can never know … maybe it's broken" Maryse contradicted, still looking as worried as before. 

Alec sighed. Unfortunately that was also a possibility of course.

"But even if it is - wouldn't it be enough to just go to a normal doctor? I think they have way more pressing cases here in hospital."

Maryse was just about to answer when the doctor came in. She was a very nice looking woman and Alec liked her immediately. The name tag on her white coat identified her as Dr. Loss. 

"Hi" she said with a smile on her face and looked down at her clipboard for a moment. "I heard there's something wrong with your arm." 

Alec nodded, whereupon the doctor started asking more questions. "Can you still move it?"

"A little bit but it hurts."

"How did this happen if I may ask?" 

Alec blushed, still embarrassed about his clumsiness but he probably shouldn't lie to the doctor so he told her the truth: "I just wanted to get up from my bed and got tangled up in my blanket so I fell."

"Oh that's really nothing to be ashamed about" the doctor said friendly. "Accidents like that happen all the time. Don't even get me started on how many stupid accidents I already had." She chuckled. "We have to x-ray that by the way" she then added, after quickly examining Alec’s arm. "Which is great because we just got a new maschine and I'm dying to try it out. So you're going to be my test object now if you don't mind."

Alec grinned. "Okay. Sounds very exciting" he said. 

"Oh it is" Dr. Loss assured him with a laugh. "Surely it's more exciting than the school lessons you're missing at the moment." 

Alec could only agree with that. 

\-------------------------------------------

About one hour later Alec and Maryse left the hospital again. Unfortunately his mother's instincts had been right and Alec's arm had really turned out to be broken. It wasn't a very complicated fracture though so he didn't need to be operated and was just wearing a plaster cast instead. 

Actually Alec had planned to go to school for the last two lessons but instead of driving him there his mother dropped him off at home. 

First he wanted to protest but then he realized that it was probably better like that. They had sports in the last two lessons today and because of his injured arm he wasn't allowed to participate anyways. Whether he was sitting at school or at home didn't really matter at this point. 

He just wished he had something to do. His mother immediately drove on to work after he had gotten out of the car so he was in the house all alone. Normally Alec enjoyed having some time for himself - with three siblings something like that didn't happen exactly often - but for some reason he was kinda bored today.

After listlessly skipping through the TV program for about ten minutes and not finding anything interesting he decided to go upstairs and read something. 

When he arrived in his room Alec sat down on his bed and grabbed the book he was currently reading from the nightstand. Since holding the book and turning the pages just with one hand was nearly impossible he laid it down on the mattress so he just had to flick the pages occasionally with his left hand.   
For about one hour he was completely lost in the story but then he realized that he was actually quite thirsty so he walked down into the kitchen to get himself something to drink. 

He opened the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of orange juice. However he then made the mistake to pour too much into his glass and when he was trying to drink he promptly spilled half of it over his shirt.  
Alec sighed deeply. Today really wasn't his day.  
He quickly drank the rest of the juice and then walked back into his room in order to change.   
He opened his wardrobe and just when he had chosen a new shirt and laid it on his desk he heard the front door fall shut downstairs and a few seconds later there were voices on the hallway.   
Apparently his siblings were back. 

Alec lifted his shirt up a bit but then he realized that, in his current condition, he most likely wouldn't be able to do this by himself. He still couldn't really move his right arm after all.

"Damn it" he cursed silently and tried to think of a way how he could make this work when suddenly there was a soft knock at his door.

That had to be Izzy. Somehow his sister always had the most inconvenient timing but this time Alec had to admit that he was rather glad about her being here cause he really needed some help right now and he definitely didn't want to ask Jace to do so. His brother would only tease him about his clumsiness again and Alec rather wasn't in the mood for that at the moment. 

"Come in" he said without turning around and closed the doors of his wardrobe again. "Actually it’s very good that you're coming just now cause I think I need some help with changing my shirt ... I can't really use my right arm and I - " 

He turned around and stopped speaking immediately when he saw that it wasn't Izzy who he had just been talking to but somebody he definitely had not expected to be there at all - Magnus.

For some inexplicable reason Magnus fucking Bane was suddenly standing in his room right behind him and of course his outfit was looking absolutely stunning again, just as always. 

He was wearing black pants and a long sleeved red linen shirt, which was clinging to his arms in a way that left almost no space for imagination and immediately made Alec’s mouth go dry. 

"Magnus!" he said shocked and blushed deeply, hoping that the other one hadn't realized that he had been staring at him. He suddenly felt oddly exposed even though he was still fully dressed. "What are you doing here? I thought you were Izzy."

"Sorry I probably should have said that it's me before I came into the room" Magnus apologized and Alec could have sworn that his cheeks were a little bit flushed as well but that was probably just his mind playing games with him. 

"I just wanted to make sure you're okay. I was worried when Izzy told me that you're injured so when your siblings went home from school I thought I could join them and come over to see how you're doing" he explained.

"Really? You- you were worried about me?" Alec stammered, not sure why exactly this was so surprising to him. Magnus definitely liked him as a friend - he wouldn't spend so much time with him if it were otherwise, right? - so why was he so startled by his words? 

Magnus seemed to think something similar: "Of course I was. We're friends after all, right?" 

Alec nodded slowly. "Yeah, you're right" he said and laughed nervously. He still couldn't really believe that Magnus was really here, in his room. To be honest he never would have thought that their neighbour would ever be that close to his bed like he was right now … Oh hell what was he thinking? He must have lost his mind!

Alec scolded himself internally, then he realized that he hadn't even answered Magnus' indirect question yet. "Oh and I'm doing fine, by the way. I mean it's a little uncomfortable of course but it's not that bad." 

Magnus smiled at him. "I'm glad to hear that" he said, then he cleared his throat and gestured at Alec’s shirt with a nod of his head. "Do you still need help with this?"

Alec’s heart stopped beating for a second, only to continue doing so twice as fast as before right afterwards. He felt his face getting hot again and quickly looked down at his hands. Somehow he had the feeling that Magnus was trying to kill him. 

"You don't have to, I mean, uh, that's really not necessary. I can do it myself I suppose." 

"You sure?" Magnus asked doubtfully. "Cause it would be no problem, really. Or I can go and call your sister if you're more comfortable with that."

'Say yes' a voice inside Alec’s head screamed. 'Say that you want Izzy to do it. Say it now'. 

But apparently the connection between his brain and his vocal cords wasn't working properly at the moment cause when he eventually opened his mouth something completely different came out: 

"No, uh, it's okay. I don’t mind you doing it" he heard himself saying and immediately wished he could take the words back again. 

He really really shouldn't do this. But still he just couldn't resist the temptation. The possibility of having Magnus so close and touching him like that … he couldn't say no to that no matter how hard he tried. Because he wanted it. He wanted it so much he could barely breathe. 

"Okay" Magnus said and a few seconds later he was already standing right in front of him and gently put his hands on the hem of Alec’s shirt. Of course his body reacted immediately to the other boys touch and he felt a hot tingle running down his spine.   
Alec bit his lip and he didn't know where to look when Magnus carefully started lifting his shirt and his knuckles brushed over his stomach during the process. Even though the touch was just very delicate it made Alec’s body shiver with excitement. He just hoped that the other one wouldn't realize. The last thing he wanted was for him to find out how much this was affecting him. How much he liked it.

Just when that particular thought was passing his mind Magnus suddenly stopped in the middle of the movement and by that made Alec's heart dropping into his gut. 

Had he caught him? Did he know what he had just been thinking? Alec held his breath and his body tensed anxiously but apparently this was about something completely different: 

"Maybe you should sit down somewhere" Magnus said. "You know, since you're taller than me. That would probably make things a bit easier."

Right. That was indeed a very good suggestion. Alec let out a silent sigh of relief and nodded. "Yeah, right" he mumbled quickly. His knees were already starting to get weak anyways so sitting would definitely be a good option right now. 

Then however Magnus didn't push him onto the desk chair like Alec had expected but went for his bed instead which was immediately making him extremely nervous again. The other boy was standing right between his legs now and Alec prayed to god that he wouldn't get hard from it cause then he would probably die of embarrassment. 

Unfortunately pulling his shirt off turned out to be way more difficult than Alec had expected so Magnus stayed in his position for over two minutes until he was done.

"Are you alright? Or did I hurt you?" he asked slightly concerned as he finally dropped the shirt on Alec’s bed.

"No you were perfect" Alec said without thinking and immediately turned into a tomato again when he realized how ambiguous his statement was sounding. "I mean you didn't hurt me" he quickly corrected, what, in retrospect, probably didn't exactly sound much better but rather worse.

Luckily Magnus didn't react to it. "Good" he just said and then went over to Alec's desk to get the new shirt he had chosen. "I guess you wanted to put this on instead?" he asked and Alec nodded. 

Without asking any further Magnus came back to him and helped him getting into the shirt. This time the process went rather quick but still Alec had a hard time trying not to let himself go too much. 

He wanted to touch Magnus so badly. He wanted to feel his skin - trace it with his fingers - and he was dying to find out if his lips really were as soft as they looked like …. 

Alec still didn’t know how it was possible that the other boy was attracting him that much and he had hoped that maybe this strange yearning he felt towards him would start fading away once he knew Magnus better but by now it was fairly obvious that the complete opposite was the case. At the moment he felt more drawn towards him than he had ever done before and he actually had to clench his hand into the bed sheet to stop himself from giving in to his urges and touch his face. 

Magnus was closing the final buttons of his shirt now and Alec couldn't help but stare at his fingers. He was wearing quite a lot of rings today, even more than usually. He wondered if it was just for fashional purposes or if the rings maybe had a deeper meaning to him but he didn't dare to ask.  
When Magnus eventually pulled his hands back Alec’s body immediately relaxed a bit. 

"Button-up shirts really are way more handy in that case, I would say" the other boy stated, clearly referring to Alec’s injured arm. "Saves a lot of trouble."

"Yeah that's right … and thank you" Alec mumbled slightly embarrassed. 

"No need to thank me" Magnus said with a smile, then suddenly he started to chuckle.

"What?" Alec asked and for one horrible moment he thought that he had grown a boner without noticing but then he quickly came to the conclusion that this wasn't the case. 

Magnus wouldn't laugh about something like that. It would be hella embarrassing for Alec but Magnus definitely wouldn't make fun about it.

"It's just … I completely fucked up your hair when I pulled off the shirt" Magnus giggled. "Looks like you have just received an electric shock." 

"Oh. I guess there wasn't that much to ruin anyways" Alec tried to joke and wanted to lift his hand in order to fix it but Magnus was faster. He ran his fingers through his hair and straightened it carefully. Alec tried to hold himself back but he failed miserably and immediately melted into the touch. Also his eyes fell shut and he sighed quietly. God why did this feel so amazing? Why was Magnus doing this to him?

Maybe he was just imagining it but it seemed to him as if the other boys hand stayed much longer in his hair than necessary … 

"Yeah that's better" Magnus muttered eventually but still he didn't pull his hand back. Instead it slowly slid down the back of Alec’s head until it came to a halt on his neck, where Magnus' thumb started drawing little circles on Alec’s skin, caressing him gently. 

Alec shivered, barely able to hold back a soft moan at this point. He could feel the cold metal of Magnus' rings against his skin contrasting with the warmth which was radiating from his fingertips and it was an absolutely overwhelming mix of sensations that completely knocked his breath out of his lungs.

He opened his eyes and stared up at Magnus, his lips slightly parted and for a moment there was this tension between them, stronger than ever before.   
The way Magnus was looking at him … it was all Alec had ever wanted but it also was the very first time for him that he was in a situation like that so he chickened out before anything else could happen and quickly lowered his eyes, breaking the contact between them.

"Sorry" Magnus said quietly and pulled his hand back immediately, probably thinking that he had made Alec feel uncomfortable. That he had done something he didn't want. What of course wasn't the case at all but Alec had no idea how to tell him that without revealing too much about his feelings. Feelings, he was still way too afraid of to commit them loudly. 

"No uh ... it's not …" Alec interrupted himself and bit his lip. "There’s nothing you need to apologize for."

"Okay." Magnus paused for a moment and there was an awkward silence between them until he eventually started speaking again. "So … uh … how did this happen by the way? The thing with your arm?" he asked, obviously trying to change the topic and Alec was extremely grateful for it but before he had the chance to answer Izzy suddenly came into his room.

"Oh, I'm so sorry if I'm interrupting something here but you left the door open so I assumed that it was okay if I just came in" she said apologetically.

"No, no it's okay" Alec said quickly. "What’s the matter?" 

"Jace, Max and I wanted to order some food and I wanted to ask what you want." 

"Oh, uh, Pizza maybe? With extra cheese" Alec said after thinking about it for a moment. 

Izzy nodded. "Okay. What about you, Magnus? Are you going to eat with us?" she wanted to know and gave him a questioning look. 

"Thanks for the offer but unfortunately I have an appointment this afternoon" Magnus said. He looked at the clock in Alec’s room and winced when he saw how late it was. 

"Shit. I'm actually late already" he cursed. "Sorry but I really have to go now."

"Oh. Okay. No problem" Izzy said. 

"I see you tomorrow then, right?" Alec asked. Somehow he had the feeling that Magnus was trying to flee from him. He just hoped that tomorrow everything would be normal between them again and that he hadn't accidentally send out the wrong signals. 

"Yes of course, tomorrow at school" Magnus said rushed and was already half out of the door when he stopped again and turned around. "Oh and Alexander?" 

"What?" 

"Please write me the next time something has happened to you" Magnus said and his smile seemed almost a little bit coy.

Alec blushed. "I will" he promised and a few moments later Magnus was gone. 

POV Magnus 

He almost would have kissed him. He almost would have kissed Alec Lightwood today.

It had already been a few hours since then but still the thought just wouldn't leave Magnus' mind. After he had arrived at his house and had dealt with his client he had tried working on his potions but he just couldn't concentrate so he gave up after he had accidentally added one ingredient too early. This mistake had caused a minor explosion as well as a very bad smell that came along with it and stubbornly refused to disappear so in the end Magnus had no other choice than opening the window and leaving the room, praying that the smell would be gone until tomorrow. 

However he needed to do something to distract himself so he decided to play some music. He had to admit that he wasn't exactly good at it - at least that was what various other people had told him - but it always helped him to get his thoughts together so he thought 'why not?' but he had forgotten that he wasn't alone in his house at the moment.

He got reminded of that again very quickly though. Not even two minutes after he had started playing the charango (an instrument which had fascinated him for a very long time already) Ragnor stormed into the room and he did not look very amused.

Magnus kept playing nevertheless and tried his best to ignore his roommate and the annoyed look he was giving him. First it seemed to work and Magnus was pleasantly surprised when his so called friend left the room without saying a word but unfortunately he came back again just a few seconds later and threw a bundle of money at his feet.

"I hope you know that this gesture isn't supposed to mean that I am impressed by you torturing that poor instrument and that I want you to continue" he said loudly, in trying to drown the noises of the charango. "I am doing this cause I am begging you to stop."

"This is still my house so I can play whenever I feel like it" Magnus replied loudly, determined not to let Ragnor get his way. 

"Yes you could but you're having a guest here at the moment just in case you forgot. And I thought you finally gave up on this. Wasn’t what Imasu told you enough to understand that you have no talent?" 

Magnus rolled his eyes and stopped playing. Imasu was one of his ex-boyfriends and he really didn't want to talk about him right now. He was already having more than enough trouble with Alec. "I know that I'm not a virtuoso-" 

At that point Ragnor snorted and thereby interrupted what the other one had just wanted to say. "That has to be the biggest understatement I have ever heard" he mumbled.

Magnus angrily furled his eyebrows. "BUT", he continued loudly, "it does help me to relax and to organize my thoughts. So if you don't mind …" 

"I do mind!" Ragnor was interrupting him again. "I thought I had already made that pretty clear by now. Also how on earth is it even possible that this horrible noise is HELPING you with thinking? The only thing it helps me with is getting a brain aneurysm. And you surely don’t want me to suffer through that, right?" He sounded hopefully. 

"Actually I do" Magnus said unimpressed and jut his chin forward. "How do you think you can stop me from playing?" 

Yes, on one hand he was angry that Ragnor was making a drama like that but on the other hand he also found it kinda amusing to annoy his roommate a little bit. Most of the time he was annoying him way more than that so he definitely deserved some revenge in Magnus' opinion.

"Come on, please, I'm begging you!" Ragnor whined now and the desperate expression on his face almost made Magnus laugh. "I'm going to pay you more, I'll give you anything, just tell me what you want!" 

Magnus raised his eyebrows. "Anything?" he repeated with an evil smirk on his face. "Are you really sure about that?" 

But before Ragnor had the chance to answer suddenly the doorbell rang.

'Damn it' Magnus cursed internally. This had just started to get very entertaining …

Ragnor on the other hand was more than happy about the interruption. "Oh bless the lord!" he said with obvious relief in his voice and before Magnus could even blink he had already disappeared onto the hallway in order to open the door. 

"Who is it?" he yelled after him but Ragnor didn't bother to answer. Instead he just opened the door and greeted whoever was standing in front of it with a very enthusiastic "Heaven must have sent you!" that made Magnus roll his eyes once more. 

"Uh okay … that's definitely the first time I've been greeted like that" another male voice answered awkwardly and Magnus immediately recognised that it was Simon. He definitely had not expected that. 

Yes, he and Simon were friends for quite a long time already - well not long for Magnus but probably for the other one - but he couldn't remember that he had ever visited him unannounced like that. They generally rather met in school or at public places. He had only been in Magnus' house one or two times before but he had always been accompanied by Clary then. Today, however, he seemed to be alone. 

"You're one of Magnus's friends right?" he heard Ragnor ask him. "And I guess you want to talk to him or something like that?"

"Uh yes?" Simon still sounded slightly confused. Probably because he didn't even know who Ragnor was.

"Just ignore that idiot and come into the living room!" Magnus yelled. "He's on drugs that's why he's behaving so weirdly."

"I am not on drugs but apart from that I agree with what he is saying cause as long as you're here he won't be touching that horrible instrument of torture again … or at least I hope so. So go in and talk to him as long as you want. And do whatever it takes to stop him from playing. Oh but please do not have sex with him or something like that. I guess those noises would be even worse to hear …"

"RAGNOR! IF YOU DON'T SHUT THE FUCK UP IMMEDIATELY I'M GOING TO WAKE YOU UP BY PLAYING THE CHARANGO EVERY MORNING STARTING FROM TOMORROW! AND I AM VERY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS!!" 

"Wow that's just cruel threatening me like that" came the answer but apparently the threat had been successful cause he heard how Ragnor went upstairs to his room. Thank god.

"I'm very sorry for this" Magnus said when Simon eventually entered the room and stood up from the sofa he had been sitting on before. "My roommate just doesn't know how to behave … Anyways why are you here? Did something happen?"

Simon shook his head. He was wearing a ACDC T-Shirt and acid washed jeans that made Magnus shudder in horror. It took all of his strength to not say anything about this and he decided to just not look at it. Instead he tried to concentrate on what the other one was saying but it was kinda difficult to follow him since he was stuttering and talking in half sentences the entire time: "No. I mean yes, kind of, but it's not something bad if that's what you thought … or actually it could be bad… I'm not sure yet if I'm being honest. But it's definitely not-"

"Samuel, stop talking riddles and just tell me what's going on" Magnus interrupted him eventually cause he had no clue what Simon was trying to tell him.

"I think I fell in love." Wow. Well that had been surprisingly straight forward.

"Oh. Okay. But it's not Clary again, is it?" Magnus asked, hoping that he was right cause he wasn't sure if he could bear this for a second time. 

"No, it's not Clary" Simon said and Magnus let out a little sigh of relief. "I know now that that was never going to work." 

"So who is it then?"

"It's Isabelle."

"Well I can't really blame you on that" Magnus said truthfully. "She's gorgeous. And smart and funny." 

"Yeah and way too cool for me" Simon added with a sigh. 

"I don’t think that."

"Really? But I'm just some nerd who always gets friendzoned by pretty girls. How is this supposed to work?" Simon asked desperately. 

"So this is what you wanted to talk about? You want me to give you advice for your love life?" 

"Yes. Yes that's exactly what I was thinking of."

"Hah" Magnus said and almost would have laughed about the irony of the situation. That he was supposed to give somebody advice about their love life while he could very well use some advice about that himself at the moment. But still … he couldn't just let Simon alone with his struggle. Especially not after he had directly asked him for help.

"I mean you are always so charming and flirty and everybody is crushing on you so I thought you would be the best person to ask about something like this. How should I behave? What is it about me that girls always just see me as their nerdy, little friend?" 

Okay … that was definitely going to become a very long evening.

"Just one second - I need a drink first …" Magnus said, already standing in front of his liquor storage. 

"You also want something? I can mix you a cocktail if you want to."

Simon shrugged and seemed to relax a bit. "Sure."

\----------------------

About one hour later Magnus and Simon were still sitting in the living room together. Or at least it felt like it had been an hour. Maybe it had been even longer than that. Magnus had to admit that he wasn't really sure how late it was. All he knew was that he was having his fifth cocktail by now while Simon was still drinking on his second. There wasn't much alcohol in it cause Simon definitely wasn't as experienced as he was when it came to drinking but still his cheeks were already slightly flushed. 

"You know, I've been talking to Jace about this as well and he said that …"

Magnus' eyes went wide. "You asked him for tips how to seduce his sister?" he interrupted Simon. 

"What? For gods sake, no, I'm not THAT stupid! He probably would have killed me. I just asked generally how he would approach a girl … and he basically said that I need to change everything about myself and stuff like that but I'm not sure if I can really do this." Simon sighed and looked down into his drink as if it held all the answers to his problems. 

"You shouldn't do it anyways" Magnus said.

"I shouldn't?"

He shook his head. "No, definitely not. Don't listen to Blondie he's talking rubbish. You should NEVER pretend to be somebody you are not and that's the most important thing. Be yourself Simon ... But maybe a little bit less talkative sometimes" he added. 

Simon frowned. "Less talkative?"

"Just a little bit" Magnus said quickly. "Don't overshare. It's not very exciting to immediately know everything about somebody."

"Oh. Okay." Simon’s face lighted up. "I guess I could do that."

"Great. And do not wear acid washed jeans."

"Why that?"

"Cause it's a sin."

"A sin?"

Magnus nodded. "The worst."

"Okaaaay." Judging by his facial expression Simon was definitely confused now but he seemed to trust Magnus' advice. "I'll try to remember that."

"You really should. It's very important" Magnus said seriously and emptied his glass.

"What about pick up lines?" Simon asked next. "I   
have this amazing James Bond impression and I think that could really work on Isabelle. You know I could say something like: 'I'm Lewis, Simon Lewis'. That would be totally cool, wouldn't it?"

Simon looked at him with excitement, obviously waiting for his approval but Magnus shook his head again. 

"Okay first of all: No. And secondly: doesn't Isabelle know your name already?" he asked back. "Would be kinda ridiculous then." 

"Oh damn it. You're right." Simon giggled. "Upsi."  
Magnus frowned. "Wait a moment … are you drunk?"

Simon shrugged and almost spilled the rest of his drink over Magnus' carpet without even realizing it.   
"I don’t know. But I feel kinda funny, yes."

"Oh my god." Magnus quickly grabbed Simons glass and put it away.

"Hey! I wanted to drink that" Simon protested but Magnus remained stubborn.

"But you're not going to" he said firmly. "I'm not going to fill up underaged teenagers in here." Also he really didn't want any strains in his carpet. Of course he could just make them disappear again with nothing more than a flick of his fingers but he still would have to live with the knowledge that the strain had been there once and that was bad enough. "I really shouldn't have given you this in the first place."

"It's no problem. Actually I feel great … "

"Yeah it seems like it." Magnus sighed deeply. He couldn't believe that it had taken him that long to realize that Simon was starting to get tipsy but on the other hand he was always behaving a little bit weirdly so it was hard to say … 

"What about compliments?" Simon asked suddenly. 

Magnus raised his eyebrows. "You want me to make you compliments?"

"No, no, no, I want to know if I should make Isssabelle compliments. Isssssabelle. What a funny name. So many ssss" 

Magnus opened his mouth but then decided not to explain that Isabelle was actually only spelled with one 's'. "You can do compliments but not too much" he said instead. "That makes it feel like you're just saying it because you want somebody and not because you actually mean it."

"Ooooh. That's smart" Simon said impressed and looked at Magnus as if he had just explained the biggest mysteries of the universe to him. 

"And when you do compliments do it rather about her character or little things you like about her" Magnus continued, hoping that Simon was still able to follow him. "I mean like: I really enjoy being with you, you're funny, I like the way you smile, I like the way you're looking when you're lost in a book and don't even notice that …"

"Wait - Are you sssure we're still talking about Isssy here?" Simon interrupted him. "Cause she doesn't read booksss."

Right. Obviously he was still able to follow him very well.

"Uh no. Rather not" Magnus admitted. "Wrong Lightwood, sorry." 

"OH, you're talking about Alec aren't you? Do you like him? Do you want to kissss him?" Simon giggled and made kissing noises.

Magnus buried his face in his hands. "Oh my god. I can't believe I'm actually having this conversation with you."

"But I want to know, pleeease. What's with you and Alec?" Simon asked curiously.

"It's … complicated" Magnus said, hoping that the other one would drop the topic now and he did. Well he didn't exactly drop it but apparently the alcohol had made him tired and so Simon soon fell asleep next to him. 

Magnus looked down at him and shook his head. If he had known that Simon didn't tolerate alcohol he definitely wouldn't have given him the cocktails but now it was too late anyways.

With Simon sleeping next to him and not talking any longer Magnus' thoughts immediately went back to Alec again. He had looked so cute today and the urge to just grab his face and kiss his lips had almost been overwhelming. After Izzy had told him that Alec had had an accident for a few horrible seconds Magnus had thought that maybe something serious had happened to him. It had been a horrible feeling and he definitely didn't want to go through something like that again. He had just found Alec and he wasn't ready to lose him already ...

In that moment Simon’s phone started ringing and Magnus' thoughts got interrupted again. 

"Hey Simon!" he said and shook his friends shoulder in order to wake him up but Simon didn't react so Magnus decided to pick the call up instead. Since it was quite late already he guessed that it was Simon’s mother, who wanted to know when her son came back home again and he was right.

Ms. Lewis was relieved to hear that he was with him cause apparently Simon had forgotten to tell her that he wanted to visit him after doing homework at Clary's in the first place.

"No, no, Simon’s here at my place and he's perfectly fine" Magnus assured her again even though it wasn't exactly the whole truth. He was still a little bit drunk after all but he felt like it would be wiser to not mention it to his mother. Especially since he was the one responsible for it. "He fell asleep on my sofa. But if you want to speak with him I can try to wake him up."

"Oh that's probably just a waste of time" Simon’s mother said with a laugh. "When he sleeps it's almost impossible to make him wake up again." 

"Yeah I already realized."

"Well … he has his school stuff with him anyways so I wouldn't mind if he would stay at your place over night. Of course only if that's okay with you as well. If not I can come over and pick him up …"

"No, no it's alright" Magnus said quickly. 

"Great. Thank you a lot Magnus."

"No need to thank me."

\--------------------------------

When Magnus came down into the living room again the next morning Simon was still curled up on the sofa and snored quietly. Magnus shook his head and walked over to him.

"Simon. Hey, Simon!!" It took him a few minutes but eventually he managed to wake the other boy up and Simon slowly opened his eyes. "Magnus?" he asked confused. "What are you doing in my bedroom?" 

"This is not your bedroom, Sanders. This is still my living room. You fell asleep here yesterday in the evening don't you remember?" 

"Oh. Now that you're mentioning it …" Simon sat up and groaned in pain, holding his head.

"How are you feeling?" Magnus asked.

"Honestly? Like Metallica is rehearsing inside of my head."

Magnus rolled his eyes. "Why didn't you tell me that you don't tolerate alcohol?"

"Cause I didn't know."

"Here drink this" Magnus said and gave his friend a glass of sobering up potion. "This is going to make you feel better. One of my special mixtures."

"Okay." Simon grabbed the glass and drank the potion in one go. For a few seconds he looked a bit sceptical but then his eyes widened in surprise. 

"Wow that stuff is incredible" he said. "I already feel way better." 

Magnus grinned. "Told you so."


	17. Chapter 17

POV Alec 

"We heard that you were having an accident. Does it hurt very bad? How are you feeling?"

Alec tried hard to not roll his eyes at the two girls who were standing in front of him and forced a smile on his face instead, before he assured them that he was fine and that it really wasn't that much of a big deal.

He had only been in school for two hours but this was already the seventh time that somebody had been asking him about his arm and slowly but surely it started to get very annoying.

Actually Alec and Jace just wanted to go to the classroom where they had their math course but they had already been stopped twice from other students on their way across the corridor. All kinds of people - especially those who had never even payed attention to Alec before - were suddenly coming up to him and tried to start a conversation. Apparently he was now interesting enough to be talked to.   
Of course Alec knew that most of them didn't actually care about him being injured. He guessed that they were just curious about what had happened and wanted to hear an exciting story that they could tell others during lunch.

Alec never really knew what to tell all those people - definitely not the truth that much was sure - but luckily Jace had always been very good at making up impressive stories and for the first time in his life Alec was extremely grateful for that. Somehow Jace managed to convince the other students that Alec’s accident had been very spectacular and not at all embarrassing and suddenly Alec was almost famous. Some girls had even asked him if they could sign their names on his cast but Alec didn't allow it. 

"Oh okay. That's good to hear" the other girl who was still standing in front of him said and her friend giggled. "I think you look really cute with that cast" she said. "If you need help with something you can always ask us." 

Gosh this was really getting worse and worse. Alec didn't know what to say so he just stammered something like "Yeah sure" and let out a sigh of relief when the two girls realized that their next lesson started soon and finally left them alone.

"Oh thank god" he said. "This so annoying."

Jace snorted and gave Alec a look as if he couldn't believe what he had just been saying. "You serious? There’s a bunch of girls being totally impressed by you even though you literally did nothing except for being a clumsy idiot and you think it's annoying?"

"Yes of course it's annoying. All those people actually don't give a shit about me. They just want to hear some drama or other interesting news they can spread around. As soon as I'm okay again they're all going to go back to acting as if they don't know me immediately" Alec tried to explain but Jace still didn’t seem to see his point. 

"Come on, don't be so pessimistic" he said. "This is your chance! It's the perfect opportunity to finally hit on some girls. I mean they already want to sign their names on that thing so I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't mind adding their phone numbers as well." He smirked and nodded at Alec’s arm.

Alec made a face and groaned in annoyance. "But I do not want their phone numbers Jace!"

"Why not?" Jace threw his hands in the air. "You can't tell me that there isn't one single girl here that interests you!"

"But it's the truth!" There was only one person who was interesting Alec in that way. And that person wasn't a girl. Also he already had his phone number. He was just too shy to write him. But he guessed that wasn't actually necessary since he saw him every day anyways.

For a short moment Alec thought about just telling his brother the truth about why he wasn't interested in any of the girls at this school but then he decided against it. He didn't believe that Jace would mind him being gay but maybe he would start trying to get some boys to write their phone numbers on his cast then and he definitely didn't want to risk that. 

The last thing he needed at the moment was even more embarrassment.

Jace sighed and dropped his hands. "Okay then" he gave in. "But believe me - it would totally work. For some reason this thing on your arm is a total chick magnet." He shook his head. "If it wasn't for Clary I would probably think about getting one as well."

Alec raised his eyebrows. He was relatively sure that it had not been his brothers intention to say that last sentence out loud but before he had the chance to tease him about it Clary suddenly appeared right behind them. 

"What about me?" she asked and Jace winced when he heard her voice.

"Oh nothing really" he said quickly and turned around in order to face her. "I was just wondering where you are."

Clary smiled. "Well now you've found me. Hi, Alec."

"Hi."

"You seem annoyed" Clary observed and gave Alec a questioning look.

"Yes he's annoyed because girls are finally starting to talk to him" Jace answered for him. "I don’t get it either" he added with a shrug.

"Oh. I understand" Clary said and judging by her facial expression she really did understand. She looked at Alec and Alec couldn't help but blush a bit. How did she know about this? And she wouldn't say anything in front of Jace or would she?

"You understand? Really?!!" Jace asked. "Cause I don’t."

Clary shrugged. "I think Alec just doesn't like being in the spotlight so much am I right?" 

"Yes that's true" Alec said relieved and gave her a thankful little smile which she returned.

Jace frowned. "Really?" he asked again but before he could talk on Clary quickly interrupted him and changed the topic. 

Alec had to admit that he liked the little red haired girl more and more with each day. If she would really become Jace's girlfriend that some point he definitely wouldn't mind. She was good for him. And Alec trusted her. 

\---------------------------

“Okay, I think we can call it a day then but before you all leave to have lunch I still have some important announcements to make" Alec and Jace's geography teacher Ms. Harris said after they had spend one and half hour on talking about the different circulatory systems. The few students who had already jumped up in gleeful anticipation dropped back on their chairs again and groaned in annoyance. Alec couldn't really blame them for wanting to leave as fast as possible cause the lesson had really not been very exciting but he was also curious what the announcement would be about.

"Well as some of you might already know we have   
been planning to hold a school dance this year before the christmas holidays start. There have still been some little complications so we didn't officially say anything yet but we had a big discussion yesterday in the evening and I am very happy to announce that the event is definitely going to take place" Ms. Harris said.

Excited chattering broke out among most of the students but there were also some others who seemed to be utterly indifferent towards the news.

“If you want to help you are very welcome to do so of course" the teacher continued as soon as the noise had calmed down again. "One of our students, Helen Blackthorn, for example is going to lead a comitee which is going to deal with the decorations for the evening. If you want to join the group - there's going to be a piece of paper on the bulletin board starting next week where you can write down your name. We would be glad if at least some of you signed up for one of the groups because it's very much work to plan and organize such a big event and we really don't want this to fail again like last year. That would be very sad, especially for the students who are looking forward to it.” 

She gave the class a serious look. “And that leads me to my second point. I know that dancing most likely isn't exactly everybody's forte but there is no need to worry about that. I have just been told that our librarian Mr. Bane is so friendly to offer some dancing lessons in the month of december so if you are feeling insecure about your dancing skills you should probably go there. Further announcements about that are yet to come. Any questions? Yes, Maik what do you want to know?"

After that Alec wasn't listening any longer since his brain was way too focused on the dancing part now. Sure, Clary had already suggested it but for some reason he hadn't thought that Magnus would actually do it. Apparently he had been wrong about that.  
The thought of Magnus teaching him how to dance made his stomach tingle and he wasn't really sure whether what he was feeling was excitement or nervousness. Probably a mixture of both. 

Maybe he would actually dance with Magnus at some point. Maybe he would feel his soft hands on his waist or his arms wrapped around his throat …   
Alec’s face got hot.

'Yeah and then you are going to stumble over your own feet, fall down and break your arm again' he thought.

"Alec! Hey Alec stop dreaming!" he suddenly heard his brothers voice and came back to reality again. To his surprise almost everybody had left the class already and he and Jace were some of the last ones left in the room. He blinked confused. When on earth had that happened? He must have been distracted longer than he had thought.

"Oh, sorry. I was just lost in thought" Alec apologized and quickly stood up as well, following Jace onto the corridor where they also met Izzy and Simon.

"Hey guys" Izzy said but Alec didn't really listen to her since he was way too distracted by the shirt Simon was wearing under his jacket. 

"Isn't that Magnus' shirt?" he asked automatically and immediately wished he just would have kept his mouth shut. He probably sounded like a jealous child or something like that. 

"Oh yes" Simon said, obviously not realizing at all. "That's actually a funny story. I was at his place yesterday in the evening and I accidentally fell asleep there so he borrowed me one of his shirts this morning. I just hope I can manage to keep it clean otherwise he is probably going to kill me." 

"Ah. Okay" Alec said and felt completely idiotic for having asked about it like that in the first place. Luckily Jace saved him again by changing the topic.

"Are you also going to the cafeteria?" he asked but Izzy shook her head. "No I'm not very hungry" she said. "Also Simon and I have to work on a project together so we're going to go to the library." 

"Okay. Then we're going to see each other later" Jace said. 

When Alec heard the word 'library' he thought about visiting Magnus but he quickly came to the conclusion that he was too hungry at the moment. Also he was still nervous about what had happened between them yesterday so he decided to visit him later, after his last lesson was over.

Together with Jace he walked into the cafeteria and after they had taken their food they sat down at the table in the right corner where Aline and Clary were already waiting for them. Aline seemed to be glowing with happiness and Alec immediately understood what was going on. 

"Oh my god yesterday was your big date with Helen, right? Judging by how you are looking I suppose it went quite well."

"Oh yes it was amazing" Aline said. "We went to the cinema but we left before the movie was even finished …" She smirked slightly and Alec almost choked on his first bite of potato casserole. 

"No, no, we didn't - I mean …" Aline blushed. "We were just making out a bit. That's all." 

"Good work" Jace said appreciatively and grinned. "I guess you're going to meet again then?"

Aline nodded. "Yes, this weekend actually."

"That's great" Alec said. 

"Yes it is … oh my god I'm just remembering that I totally forgot to ask how you are" Aline said guiltily, obviously talking about his little accident. 

"Oh it's no problem, really" Alec quickly assured her. "I'm good but people are constantly asking me questions about it since I came onto the schoolyard this morning and it's really annoying. Some students even wanted to sign their names on my cast." He shook his head. "I just wish they would stop with that."

"If that's really annoying you that much I could probably help you I think" Clary suddenly joined the conversation as well. 

Alec raised his eyebrows and Jace looked surprised as well. "Really? And how are you planning on doing that?"

"Just wait a second" Clary mumbled and shoved her plate aside. Then she rummaged in her bag until she had found what she was looking for and dropped her pencil case on the table. "If I would draw something on it there wouldn't be any space left for people to write something" she explained and Alec understood. That idea was actually really good.

"Yes, that would be great" he said. "But don't you want to finish eating first?"

Apparently she didn't cause as soon as he had agreed she immediately grabbed a bunch of felt tip pens and started drawing. Alec let her. 

In the meanwhile he was chatting with Aline and Jace and soon they started talking about the school dance. 

"I definitely won't be going to those dancing lessons" Jace said. "Over my dead body."

"Why not?" Clary asked and lifted her gaze for a moment in order to look at him. "Dancing can be real fun, you know?" 

"So you're going to go there?" 

Clary laughed. "No offence but I've been taking lessons since I'm seven. I know how to dance."

"Lucky you" Jace said with a sigh. "I do not know a single thing about dancing and learning it in front of half of the school doesn't really sound very tempting to me."

"I could teach you if you want" Clary suggested innocently and stopped drawing for a moment. "In private I mean so you don't have to do it in front of others." 

Jace stared at her and choked on his food. Aline giggled quietly about his reaction and Alec also couldn't hide a little grin. He remembered exactly that Clary had told him and Aline a few days ago that she wasn’t good at teaching others and didn’t want to do it but apparently Jace seemed to be an exception. Interesting. 

"Are you serious about this?" Jace asked, his eyes still wide.

"Sure why not?" Clary smiled at him. "I mean unless you don't want to of course." 

"I want to!!" Jace said quickly then he realized how eager he had sounded and blushed slightly. "I mean I … uh … I'm okay with that" he corrected himself and cleared his throat.

Clary chuckled. "Great. I'm really looking forward to it." 

\-----------------------------

For the rest of the day Jace was unbearable. If it hadn't been obvious before that he was having a crush on Clary it definitely was now. He mentioned her name approximately two hundred times until they had dinner in the evening. 

The next day wasn't much better. 

Saturday after lunch Alec finally had enough of him and decided to go somewhere. He really didn't care   
where - any place where Jace was not was fine with him. 

What he had definitely not expected was that he was going to run into Magnus almost immediately after he had left the house.

"Magnus, hi." 

"Oh, Alexander." Magnus turned around and smiled at him. "What a lucky coincidence. Where are you going to?" 

"Uh … actually I don’t have a clue" Alec laughed. "I'm just trying to avoid Jace. And you? Where are you going to?" 

"To a friend of mine. It's her birthday today" Magnus answered and Alec realized only now that he was indeed holding a birthday card in his hands. It was a rather weird card though.

"A very interesting card you have there" he said.  
Magnus frowned in confusion. "Why is it so interesting?" he asked, looking down at it. 

"Well it says Happy 429th birthday on the front if I see correctly and unless the 4 is there by accident that's a little bit weird, isn't it?" 

"Oh that." Magnus laughed. "That's just some kind of running gag between us. My friend always complains about feeling so old already so I make her older on her birthday cards to tease her about it." 

"How nice" Alec said but then he started laughing too. "Actually this totally sounds like something Jace would do as well." 

Alec would have loved to keep talking to their neighbour just a little bit longer but if he had somewhere else to be he couldn't stop him from going there of course. 

"So … uh … I don’t want to bother you any longer then" Alec said. "You surely want to get going now."

"You're not bothering me, Alexander. You never could" Magnus answered and his voice sounded so soft and honest that it made Alec’s heart jump inside of his chest. He just hoped that he wasn’t blushing again. "In fact I just wanted to ask if you maybe want to come with me."

Alec blinked. He surely hadn't understood right.

"Uh excuse me?"

"If you don't want to that's perfectly fine of course" Magnus said quickly. "I just thought since you don't know where to go anyways you might as well just join me." 

"No, no it's not that I don't want to. But are you really sure about that?" Alec stammered. "I mean I don’t even know your friend so what is she going to think when you just bring me along?"

"She would be fine with it, believe me. She's very nice and she's actually very curious about you."  
Alec’s eyes widened in surprise. " You told her about me?" 

For a moment it almost seemed like Magnus was blushing a bit. "Uh … yes" he said. "I always tell her everything and you're the new neighbour so …"

"Oh. Okay."

"And also I like you a lot. So of course I told her about you" Magnus added. Now Alec definitely blushing. And his heart was almost jumping out of his chest. "So are you going to join me then? And don't worry I won’t drag you into a wild party or something like that. I know that you feel uncomfortable with too many people around. Catarina and I are just meeting for tea and biscuits. It's kind of a tradition between us."

Magnus gave him another smile and even if he wanted to say no he couldn't. He could never resist Magnus, not if he was offering something like that. Not when it meant that he could spend more time with him. 

"Okay then" Alec said and Magnus beamed. "Great."

They walked through the streets together and Magnus told him funny little stories along the way. He seemed to know quite a lot of those and Alec couldn't help but be a little bit jealous when he heard how exciting Magnus' life seemed to be. It almost sounded like he had been around the entire world already and Alec silently wondered how he had found the time for all of this. And the money. 

Before he had a chance to ask about it they arrived though and Magnus rang the doorbell.

Alec tried hard to swallow down his nervousness but when the door was eventually opened he was pleasantly surprised to see Dr. Loss standing in front of him; the friendly woman who had taken care of his arm. So apparently she was friends with Magnus … he definitely had not seen that coming at all. 

POV Magnus   
Catarina's birthday was a day Magnus was always very much looking forward to. One important aspect was of course that he got to spend time with her but actually he could as well do that on any other day when she wasn't busy with her work so another aspect came into play as well: the biscuits. 

Catarina was making the best biscuits one could possibly find on this planet - and Magnus definitely knew what he was talking about here. In his four hundred years of life he had never found anybody who was able to bake as well as Catarina did. He had asked her many times how she was doing it and to what extent her magic was involved in the process but she stubbornly refused to share her secret with him. Every time Magnus asked her he received nothing more than a secretive smile as an answer but of course that didn't stop him from trying it again and again every year. This year however it would be different because Alec was with him. 

To be honest Magnus had not been sure how Catarina would react to him bringing the Lightwood along without telling her about it first but it quickly turned out that his sorrow had been completely ungrounded. When Cat opened the door and saw him she didn't even seem to be surprised. And - what was even more weird - she seemed to know him already.

"Oh hello you two" she said with a smile and stepped aside so that Magnus and Alec could enter the house. "Come on in"

Magnus looked over to Alec and judging by his surprised facial expression he seemed to know her as well.

"Well" Magnus said as he closed the door behind him. "I would introduce you two but for some reason I have the feeling that this is rather unnecessary." 

"Yes, we already met a few days ago, right?" Cat asked Alec and winked at him. 

He nodded and blushed a bit. "Yeah. Uh she was the doctor who treated my arm." 

"Ah. That explains it of course." 

"Oh uh … Happy Birthday by the way" Alec said, a little bit awkwardly and shook Catarinas hand.

"Thank you. I'm very glad that Magnus brought you along."

Alec raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Sure. You're his friend after all. And you're new in the neighbourhood so of course I'm curious about you." 

Magnus just opened his mouth in order to say something when he suddenly heard a very weird noise coming out of the living room.

"Uh … Cat? Did you leave the television on?" he asked confused.

"No. Why would you think that?" Catarina asked back, clearly not getting what he meant.

"I just thought I could hear a baby crying. That's why I asked." 

"Oh you're right. Seems like she woke up again." Cat sighed. "She really isn't a very heavy sleeper." 

'She isn't a very heavy sleeper?' To say that Magnus was confused would be the understatement of the century. He had absolutely no idea who that child was or where it suddenly came from.

It obviously couldn't be Cat's biological child since she had never been pregnant before and warlocks were infertile in the first place. And she definitely didn't have adopted one either. With her job she would barely have time to raise a child all alone and even if that weren't the case she would have told Magnus about such a big step.

"I really don't want to be too curious about this but why are you having a baby?" Magnus asked when Catarina didn't give him any further explanation about the issue and followed her into the living room, Alec next to him. 

It turned out that the sounds came from a baby crib which was standing next to Cat's sofa.

"I'm just taking care of her over the weekend" she explained while she took the crying baby into her arms. "Her mother is a friend of mine and she's in hospital at the moment." 

"Oh. I understand" Magnus said and yet again he was impressed by his friend's kindness. Even though Catarina had basically been working non-stop for the last four month she still spend her two days off helping other people as well. 

"What about the father?" Alec asked.

Catarina made a sad face. "He left her when he heard she was pregnant."

"What an asshole!" 

"Magnus!" Cat slapped his arm and gave him a reproachful look. "Don't use bad words in front of the child."

"Right, I'm sorry" Magnus mumbled apologetically. 

"I really don't know why she is crying again" Cat said with a sigh and she sounded almost a little bit desperate. "I mean I just fed her and I also changed her diapers … what else am I supposed to do?" 

Before anyone could answer her question there was a beeping sound coming from the kitchen. 

"Oh shit, that's the biscuits … Magnus could you please hold her for a second."

"Yeah uh, sure" Magnus stammered, slightly overwhelmed and not a blink of an eye later he was already holding the crying baby in his arms. He tried to look as if he knew what he was doing but actually he didn't have any clue. Despite his very long life his knowledge about babies was very limited. Children, yes. He definitely knew how to handle them. But a small and fragile little creature like that? He wasn’t even sure how to hold her properly. Also she was still crying and that was just making him even more nervous.

"Everything alright with you?" Alec asked him. "You look so shocked."

"Oh it's nothing, really. I'm just don’t have that much experience with babies I guess" Magnus admitted. "Actually this is the first time I'm holding one so …"

"Really?"

He nodded and chuckled slightly. "I just hope I'm not doing anything wrong here." 

"No, you're not. You're doing great" Alec said and smiled at him. "Maybe you should walk through the room a bit and talk to her … that always calmed Max down again when he was crying."

"You're really good with babies, aren't you?" Magnus asked while he was following Alec’s suggestion and started walking around in the living room.

"I don’t know about that. When Max was little he always preferred playing with Jace. I guess I was just too boring for him. That's also why I was always the one telling him goodnight stories. I just needed to talk for like two minutes and he immediately fell asleep." 

Magnus grinned. The image of Alec sitting at his little brothers baby crib was just too adorable. "I don't think that he was bored. You just have a very soft and lovely voice. It's very calming to hear you talking. That's probably why he fell asleep so quickly."

When he looked over at Alec his cheeks were flushed. "Really?" 

Magnus nodded. "Yes, really … Hey, look at that! She stopped crying." He sat down on the couch and looked down at the baby's face. Two big, blue eyes looked back up to him. Magnus swallowed.

"See? I told you you're doing just fine" Alec said and sat down next to him.

Magnus lifted his hand and carefully stroked the baby's cheek, causing her to let out a gurgling noise that almost sounded like a laugh. Then she suddenly started moving her short, little arms and grabbed one of his fingers, apparently to have a better look at the flashy ring he was wearing. She looked at it as if she had never seen anything more fascinating and Magnus couldn't hold back a little chuckle.

"You like my ring huh?" he asked and his heart was suddenly full of love and affection for the little child in his arms. Instead of answering - what she wasn't able to do of course - the baby clumsily started playing with the ring on Magnus' finger. 

"Looks like she likes glittery things" Alec said. Magnus looked up again and when he saw the warm expression on the other boys face he couldn't breathe properly. Gosh he was crushing so hard on him it was almost ridiculous. 

\----------------------------------------

Five minutes later the baby was lying in her crib again and Magnus, Alec and Catarina were sitting around the table in the living room, eating biscuits and drinking coffee. 

It seemed like his friends came along pretty well but still Magnus wanted to hear Cat's opinion on Alexander so he used the opportunity and asked her about it while the other one was on the toilet.

"So what do you think about him?"

"I have to say I'm surprised" Cat admitted. "He's completely different than I imagined him to be. If he wouldn't look exactly like his mother … "

She didn't finish the sentence but Magnus knew exactly what she meant. "Yeah right? He's so … different." He sighed deeply.

"And you are totally in love with him." Cat giggled.  
"But I get it, really. He's a catch. I have to admit that when you first told me that the Lightwoods are living next to you now I thought that you would do better staying away from them but I feel like Alexander is good for you. I haven't seen you smile that much in ages."

Magnus blushed slightly. "Well I can't help it." 

"But he doesn't know anything yet, right? You know what I mean." Cat gave him a meaningful look.

"No he doesn't. But I will tell him … at some point." 

Cat raised her eyebrows. "And when is that going to be? When you don't do something soon he'll maybe find somebody else."

Magnus looked down at his hands. "Maybe that would be better for him."

"Excuse me??" Cat almost dropped her coffee pot.

"You know what I mean Cat. My life is dangerous. And I don't want him to get hurt." 

"But this is also his decision, Magnus!" Cat said. "You can't just decide that for both of you. You have to tell him the truth and then you two should figure out together what to do."

"Sounds like a great plan" Magnus said. 'If only you weren't such a coward' his subconsciousness added.


	18. Chapter 18

POV Alec 

The afternoon went over surprisingly quick. If Alec hadn't seen the sky slowly turning dark outside the window he probably wouldn't have believed that it was so late already. 

"Thank you two for coming today" Cat said as she eventually walked him and Magnus to the door. "It was a real pleasure having you around."

"Oh it was a real pleasure for me too, believe me" Magnus assured her. 

Cat raised one of her eyebrows. "I hope you're not just saying that because of the biscuits." 

"Well…" Magnus grinned widely, making his friend laugh.

"You're impossible. I can't believe I'm still friends with you!" Cat said and playfully slapped his arm.

"Come on you know you love me" Magnus said but Cat just rolled her eyes in response.

Alec chuckled quietly. He didn't know exactly how long Catarina and Magnus already knew each other but judging by how casual they had been acting around each other within the last few hours Alec guessed that it was probably a rather long time. They really seemed to know everything about each other and for some reason that was kinda fascinating to Alec. He had never had a friend like that, not outside his family. It always took him a rather long time to really open up to other people and apparently almost nobody had enough patience for that. With Magnus however he felt hope that it could be different … that he would wait for him.

"It was really nice getting to know you" Alec said to Cat, pushing his thoughts aside for the moment. "And thank you for the coffee and the biscuits. It was delicious."

"I'm actually surprised that Magnus didn't just eat all the biscuits by himself." Cat shook her head and laughed when Magnus gasped with put-on hurt.

"I would never do that. I am a gentleman after all" he defended himself with a cute little pout on his face that made Alec’s heart jump. 

"Yes that's true" Cat admitted. "I wish we could banter some more but I have to look after the baby so …" 

"Yeah of course. See you soon then" Magnus smiled at her and Alec said goodbye as well, then they started heading home, walking side by side. Most of the time their hands were only a few inches away from each other and Alec felt the urge to bridge the distance between them but he was too afraid to do so. 

For a few minutes neither of them said a word but it was a comfortable silence. Or at least Alec thought so until it came to his mind that maybe Magnus was expecting him to say something. 

"So … uh … Cat is very nice" Alec tried to start a conversation. "It seemed to me like you are very close. Like you know her for a very long time already." 

Magnus looked a bit surprised for a moment, then he chuckled and shook his head.

"What?" Alec asked, worried that he had said something wrong.

"Nothing. I just forgot for a second how observant you are" Magnus answered. "And yes I do know her for a long time already. As long as I can remember actually." 

"That's great. It must be amazing to have such great friends. To be honest I have never had a friend like that." 

"I'm pretty sure that this will change at some point. And even if not - you'll always have your siblings" Magnus said with a little smile on his lips. 

"Yes that's true. They're great. Most of time anyway. But Jace can also be a real pain in the ass sometimes." 

They both laughed and Alec stuffed his left hand into the pocket of his jacket. He had learned his lesson from last time and had grabbed a jacket before they had left for Catarina's but his hands, his neck and his face still were a little bit cold by now. 

Normally Alec wouldn't really mind but he could already feel a light scratch in his throat and he definitely didn't want to catch a cold as well - his broken arm was already bad enough after all.

"Please remind me that next time we are wandering around at night I should bring a scarf with me" Alec said to Magnus. "Or I'll soon have a sore throat."   
Magnus stopped walking. "Oh that's no problem. I actually have a scarf here" he said and before Alec could even process what he was saying he had already pulled the piece of clothing out of the pocket of his coat. 

"Oh … uh … thank you" Alec stammered and tried his best not to blush when Magnus was wrapping his arms around his neck and winded the scarf round his throat.

"Better?" he asked when he stepped back again and Alec nodded, his cheeks still feeling slightly hot.   
For the rest of the way they didn't talk much. Only when they eventually arrived in front of Alec’s family's house he broke the silence again.

"Thank you for taking me to Catarina's. It was great" he said truthfully.

Magnus smiled. "No need to thank me for that. I always enjoy your company." 

"Me too" Alec mumbled and hoped that Magnus didn't realize how husky his voice suddenly sounded. He already wanted to say goodbye but then he realized that he was still wearing Magnus's scarf.  
"Oh I should probably give this back to you" he said but Magnus just made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "You can keep it." 

Alec's eyes went wide. Was Magnus serious about this? "Really? I mean you don't have to … " 

"I still have enough scarves at home, believe me" Magnus interrupted him with a grin on his face. "And besides this color looks really good on you so I have to insist." 

Alec felt like his head was about to explode. He wanted to say something in return but his vocal cords didn't seem to be working at the moment so he ended up helplessly opening and closing his mouth several times without any sound leaving his lips and felt like a complete idiot once again.

"Okay so… I think you should probably go inside now" Magnus said and he sounded slightly amused. "It looks like your siblings are already waiting for you." 

Alec frowned in confusion but then he turned around and saw that Izzy and Max were watching them through the one of the windows next to the door. When their gazes met Izzy grinned widely and waved, making Magnus laugh. 

"You're right. I thought they would be asleep already." Alec laughed awkwardly. 

After he and Magnus had arrived at Catarina's he had called his mother to tell her that he was meeting a friend from school and that he would probably come back quite late. He hadn't mentioned that the 'friend from school' he was hanging out with was also their neighbour because he didn't want to risk having another Magnus related discussion with his mother so he should probably better get going now before Maryse also appeared at the window and saw them together. 

"Well, Good Night then" Magnus said. "See you in school on monday." 

"Yeah right. Good Night, Magnus." 

They smiled at each other for one last time, then Alec turned around and quickly went into the house. Izzy and Max were waiting for him in the kitchen and they both grinned widely when Alec entered the room.

"And? How was your date?" Izzy asked and wiggled her eyebrows. "Your cheeks are red so I guess that's a good sign." 

Alec tried not to be embarrassed. "That's just because it's cold outside" he lied. 

"Yeah sure" Izzy said. 

"And we didn't have a date. We were just visiting one of Magnus's friends." 

Izzy snorted, obviously not believing him. 

"What about that scarf you were wearing though?" Max asked, changing the subject. Just like Izzy he was already wearing his pyjamas and sat on the kitchen table - something their mother had forbidden him multiple times already but Max didn't seem to care. "I have never seen that scarf on you before. It's unusually colorful for your style, isn't it?" 

"Yeah right" Izzy agreed with him, sounding excited. "Since when do you have such a good taste? Seems like Magnus is having a good influence on you if he convinced you to buy something like that" she said with a smirk. 

Great. Now it were already two of his siblings drilling him with those kind of questions. Alec hadn't told Max directly that he liked Magnus but he guessed that he had figured that out by himself already. 

"I didn't buy it. It's Magnus's. He gave it to me" Alec explained the situation, giving in to the questioning looks Max and Izzy were giving him.  
Max raised his eyebrows and Izzy’s jaw dropped. 

"You mean he gifted you his own scarf?"   
Alec nodded and Izzy squeaked. 

"Oh my god!!" 

Just in that moment Jace entered the kitchen and walked over to the fridge. He seemed to be confused about what was going on and frowned at Izzy’s loud display of happiness.

"Everything alright?" he asked, while he was opening the door. "You sound a little bit crazy. I mean even more crazy than usually." 

Izzy ignored the teasing side remark. To be honest Alec wasn't even sure if his sister had actually listened to Jace in the first place. 

"Magnus gave his scarf to Alec!" 

Now Jace seemed to be even more confused. He stopped searching the refrigerator for food and lifted his head. "And why are you so happy about this?" 

He looked over to Alec and apparently he saw something in his face that made him understand.   
Alec could literally see how he was putting one and one together.

"Wait a minute … are you … I didn't even know you were into dudes." 

Alec cleared his throat, feeling slightly uncomfortable. "Well I am" he said.

"Exclusively?" Jace asked. Alec nodded, not knowing where to look. 

"Okay … nice" Jace grinned. "That explains why you didn't want any of the girls phone numbers." 

"You seriously didn't know this?" Izzy asked incredibly. "Gosh you are so blind sometimes." 

"Hey I'm sure I'm not the only one who didn't know" Jace defended himself. "Max did you know about this?" 

"Actually, yes." 

"You … oh, great, great. Does mom know too?" 

"No" Alec said. "And I would be very grateful if you wouldn't mention any of this in front of her." 

Jace shrugged. "Sure." 

Then he made himself a sandwich. Obviously Alec’s confession wasn't shocking him too much. 

"I can't believe you're actually still hungry" Izzy said while Jace was eating. "I mean you already ate a whole pizza just a few hours ago." 

"And?" Jace asked with his mouth full. Izzy just shook her head in response. 

Then Maryse came into the room. "What is going on here? A pyjama party?" she asked with a laugh and Max quickly jumped off the table before he could get into trouble for it. "I thought you all were sleeping already."

"We were just waiting for Alec to come back" Max explained. 

"Yeah and I was hungry." 

"Yes I can see that. And how was your day with your friend?" She looked at Alec.

"Oh it was great" Alec said and hoped that he didn't sound suspicious. 

Apparently that wasn’t the case because Maryse smiled. "That's good. I'm glad to see that you're finding so many new friends here."   
Alec smiled and nodded. 

"How is his name by the way? You didn't tell me about that yet if I'm remembering correctly."

Crap. "Oh … uh … Simon. It's Simon" Alec said quickly. He hated lying to his mother but at the moment he didn't really have another choice. He first wanted to make up a name but then his swindle probably would have been exposed rather quickly. It was definitely more intelligent to give his mother the name of somebody he actually knew. And he was pretty sure that Simon would play along with the lie if he asked him to do so.

Maryse seemed surprised. "You mean the boy who was here a few days ago?" 

"Yes exactly."

"Wow. I never would have thought that you two would become such a good friends."

Alec laughed nervously. "Yeah I wasn't really expecting that either. But he's actually quite funny."

"Yes he seemed rather sympathetic when I saw him" Maryse said and Alec relaxed again. Everything was fine. She believed him. 

\----------------------------------

About half an hour later Alec was upstairs in his room. He had changed into his pyjamas as well (Izzy had helped him a bit) and was now lying on his bed in the darkness, staring at the ceiling. He tried to sleep but he just wasn't tired enough. Also his brain was still too busy thinking about Magnus. Alec had enjoyed hanging out with him a lot but he was afraid that in the near future he wouldn't be able to spend that much time with him any longer cause his teachers had announced quite a few tests for the next few weeks and he needed to study. 

Alec sighed quietly and tried to find a more comfortable sleeping position. With his broken arm that wasn't exactly easy. He just hoped that it wouldn't take too long until he could finally get rid of this stupid cast again. 

After a while it started raining lightly and the calming sound of the raindrops pattering against the skylight soon made Alec fall asleep. 

[time jump]

POV Magnus 

One month. It had been a little bit more than one month already since he and Alec had visited Catarina together and Magnus still hadn't found the right moment to drop the 'Hey I'm an immortal supernatural being capable of doing magic' bomb on his friend yet.

It wasn't like he hadn't tried but everytime he had successfully convinced himself that today was the day something had interfered with his plans. Also he and Alec had both been quite busy during the last month. Alec had exams and tests at school and studied a lot, while Magnus had dozens of orders for potions to fulfill. Within the last few days he had worked so much that Catarina was already starting to be seriously concerned about his health. Not to mention his mother who had showed up at his place after Cat had spoken to her and gave him a seemingly endless lecture about how important it was to not work too much and to maintain a regular sleeping schedule - like he was a still a child and wouldn't know about such things. Ragnor of course had been very amused about that and he was still teasing Magnus with it whenever he found an opportunity to do so.

Actually Magnus didn't really need the money he earned by selling his potions (in contrast to other warlocks his prices were rather low) - but he wanted to help people. He knew very well that he was maybe doing a little bit too much sometimes but he just couldn't help it. 

Today however, on the 20th of october (a saturday) was the first day in weeks on which Magnus didn't have anything to do so he decided to spend some time with his friends. It had been a rather long time already since they all had been doing something together so of course they all were on board with the idea immediately when Magnus suggested it. Aline would even bring Helen as well and Magnus thought that it was a very good idea. 

Except for him and Aline the others didn't really know her yet so this was a great opportunity to integrate her into the group a bit. 

Since it was supposed to be the last relatively warm day of the month they all had decided to take the chance and go for a swim outside for the last time of the year. The place they were planning to go to was a little lake in the woods at the outskirts of the village not many people knew about. Magnus had discovered it about three years ago, together with Clary and Simon. The three of them had already been there multiple times since then so they would show the others the way. It would probably take them about 25 minutes to get there so it was a good thing that it wasn't very hot anymore. Actually the temperatures at the moment were absolutely perfect for taking a little walk. 

They had decided to meet in the park at 2pm but unfortunately Magnus got a little bit distracted (of course it had entirely been Ragnor's fault again) so he was about fifteen minutes late. When he arrived all the others were already there and waited for him. 

"Sorry for being late" Magnus apologized. "I hope you weren't waiting too long already."

"Oh no it's fine" Clary said. "Simon also arrived just now."

"I guess Helen has already been introduced to the others then."

"Yes but I'm not sure if I remember all the names yet" Helen said.

"I'm sure by the end of the day you will." 

Magnus' gaze fell on Alec who was, as always, standing a little bit further away from the others and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw the he wasn’t wearing his cast any longer.

"Seems like your arm is better again, huh? Strange, I could have sworn that the healing process would take longer. I mean you didn't have an operation after all"

"Yes really is a little miracle" Alec said with a happy smile on his face. "The doctors were just as surprised as you are but I feel totally fine." 

A miracle. When Alec said those words Magnus immediately put one and one together and grinned. Sometimes Catarina just couldn't hold herself back with her patients. "Well that's what I call a very lucky development." 

Magnus looked at Alec and realized yet again how beautiful the other boy was. If he hadn't been completely sure what he was feeling for him a month ago he definitely was by now. Looked like Ragnor was winning this stupid bet after all ... 

\---------------------------

They started walking a few minutes later, Clary leading the little group. Magnus walked a little bit more behind so he could talk with Alec. Jace and Izzy were right in front of them; Aline and Helen next to them. And Simon … well. Apparently Simon had had too many coffee in the morning. At least Magnus guessed that that was the reason for the slightly hyperactive behaviour he was showing. Caffeine always had very funny effects on him. At the moment for example he was singing. Non-stop. First it was ACDC but then he changed into a Michael Jackson medley. 

Jace looked mildly annoyed about Simon’s performance but Magnus on the other hand was rather amused about it and cheered occasionally when Simon hit a high note. 

Judging by her facial expression Helen still seemed to be unsure whether to be bewildered or amused about Simon’s behaviour but Magnus guessed that it was probably it was a mixture of both.

"Yep. These are the people I usually hang out with" Aline said, making her girlfriend chuckle.

"Most of us are pretty normal, actually" Clary tossed in. "Well except for Simon. And Magnus is also a little bit crazy sometimes but you probably know that already." 

Magnus grinned. "Thanks, biscuit. I'm flattered." 

"Actually it's quite impressive how he can remember all the lyrics to the songs" Helen said, clearly talking about Simon again. 

"Yes he's very good at that. Maybe it's because he has a band" Izzy remarked.

Helen seemed surprised. "Oh. He really has a band?" 

Magnus nodded. "Yes he does. It maybe doesn't sound very convincing at the moment but they're actually quite good." He laughed. "Just please don't tell him that I said this or he will never shut up about it again."

Now Helen was laughing as well. "My lips are sealed." 

Simon’s singing stopped for a moment and he turned around to the others. "Hey you guys aren't talking about me behind my back, are you?"

"Of course not, Sherwin. We would never dare to do such a thing" Magnus said innocently and he heard Alec chuckle quietly next to him. Simon didn't seem to notice it though.

"Do you also take any song requests or special wishes?" Aline wanted to know.

Simon beamed, obviously very happy about her interest. "Yes, of course."

"Great. Then I wish to make the request that you shut the hell up" Jace said immediately. "Or I'm going to drown you later."

But apparently Simon wasn’t very impressed by his threat. "Unfortunately that's not an option" he just said and grinned at him. 

For a moment Jace looked like he wanted to reply something but then he seemed to change his mind and closed his mouth again. Magnus was pretty sure that it had something to do with the warning glance Clary was giving him. 

"I can't believe that they're still not a couple" Alec mumbled next to him, so that only Magnus could hear it. "I mean it's so obvious by now but somebody has to make the first move." 

"Yeah I guess you're right." The two of them were looking at each other and Magnus could feel his skin tingle all over. 'Somebody has to make the first move' … 

Was it only a coincidence that he had said this or was he trying to imply something? Something that didn't have to do anything with Clary or Jace at all?

"So … uh… who do you think should do it? Take the first step I mean?" Magnus asked. 

Alec’s eyes widened a bit and he swallowed. "I … uh … I don’t know" he stammered and blushed. "I mean they have to figure this out for themselves, don’t they?"

Magnus sensed that Alec was starting to get tense so he decided to drop the topic for now. This generally was a kind of conversation they should rather have when they were alone. Over the last few weeks Magnus had realized that Alec seemed to be more comfortable talking to him when there was nobody else around so he should probably wait for a better moment. Cause the last thing he wanted was to make Alec feel uncomfortable in any way. 

Luckily they arrived at the place where the lake was just then and Alec got distracted by the scenery in front of him. 

"Oh wow. It's really beautiful here" he said impressed while he was looking around.   
Magnus could definitely understand where his fascination was coming from. Of course he had been here multiple times already but that had usually been in the summer. Now, in autumn, the area around the pond was even more impressive than otherwise. The colourful leaves of the trees looked beautiful in the golden sunlight and reflexes on the water were spectacular. 

"You can really see that not many people know about this place" Izzy agreed with her brother. "Everything looks so natural and pristine here."

"Is the water very cold?" Aline asked and before anybody could answer her she had already stepped forward and put her hand into the lake. 

"Oh shit, that's colder than I expected" she said and pulled her hand back again. "And you guys really want to swim in there?" 

"Sure. I mean where's the fun otherwise?" Jace said confidently but Simon didn't look as unworried as he did. The others did neither.

"Well not everybody has to swim in there obviously" Clary said. We can also sit down on that tree log over there and talk. I brought some tea and sandwiches with me." 

"Oh yes, that sounds great" Izzy said.

In the end Izzy, Clary and Helen decided to not go into the water but Jace and Aline did. They had brought their swimming clothes and changed behind a bush. Alec and Magnus meanwhile had chosen the third option and sat down on the water's edge with their trouser legs rolled up so they could put only their feet into the water. Magnus admitted that he also would have liked seeing Alec shirtless, but as long as he was sitting so close next to him he didn't really care how many clothes were on his body. His mere presence was more than enough. 

"Hey guys, mind if I join you?" Simon asked. 

"Of course not. Sit down Sydney." Magnus patted on the ground next to him.

Simon sighed. "I really wonder if one day you're going to run out of wrong names to call me."

"I don’t think so" Magnus said with a grin on his face. 

"You're not going to sing again, are you?" Alec asked slightly suspicious when Simon sat down next to him. 

"Don't worry I'm going to be completely silent. You won't even realise I'm here." 

Magnus raised his eyebrows. That definitely was rather doubtful. Alec also didn't look very convinced by Simon’s promise. 

"Hey does that nerd annoy the two of you?" Blondie had been swimming over to them and was now giving his brother a questioning glance. For some reason Alec’s cheeks blushed slightly in response. 

"Jace" he said reproachfully but the other boy ignored it. 

"Ah, come on. You can tell me. I can get rid of him within the blink of an eye .. ." A sneaky grin spread on Jace's face and before either Magnus or Alec had the chance to say something Blondie had already grabbed Simon’s legs and pulled him down. With a shriek the boy next to them disappeared and fell into the water.


End file.
